Church of Notre Dame of Lourdes

This guide to the Church of Notre Dame of Lourdes in Casablanca follows glassmaker Gabriel Loire, working in a Chartres workshop in the 1950s with thick slabs of colored glass smashed and set into wet concrete rather than lead. It tracks the technique from its 1930s Paris origins under Jean Gaudin to a 1954 decision by architect Achille Dangleterre and engineer Gaston Zimmer to build this church almost entirely from concrete, and to the letter that brought Loire across the Mediterranean. Stand close to the walls and watch how the pieced-together panes read as solid color from a distance but break apart up close.