Church of Sainte-Thérèse de l'Enfant Jésus in Rayol

The church of Sainte-Thérèse de l'Enfant Jésus, built in 1930-1932 by the architect Marcel Guesnot, completes what was intended to be the heart of the Provencal village. The developer of the housing estate even had in his files a project for a "basilica", grandiose, gigantic, of which the present church would have been only the crypt.
Marcel Guesnot, an architect, moved to Rayol in 1926, at the age of 30. He represented the firm of architects Jean Maroni and Alfred Tord from Paris, who had a plot of land near the Patec. He was one of the pioneers of Rayol, and also built the school and many villas.
The church was built by the Gayaud company on the plans of Marcel Guesnot. Given the slope of the land, the latter used a one-story model with a jointed stone base, solid dry stone buttresses, and a porch with a large arched opening. A sober bell tower rises from the gable roof covered with Roman tiles. The porch, the very Provençal gable wall and the bell tower face south and the building slightly dominates the square from the round pergola.
After the last war, the chapel having become too small, it was enlarged and its bell tower was pulled down and replaced.
It has the particularity of having an outside mass place, behind the church.