Our Lady of Angels Church
தேவதூதர்களின் அன்னை ஆலயம்
Église Notre-Dame-des-Anges on Dumas Street, built in 1855 in Greco-Roman style and facing the sea; mass is said here in French, Tamil and English.
Église Notre-Dame-des-Anges stands on Dumas Street in the French Quarter, facing east towards the Bay of Bengal. It is also known as the White Chapel, as Kaps Koil and, locally, as the Dumas Church, and it is the only church in the city where mass is said in French, Tamil and English.
History
The present church was built in 1855 in the Greco-Roman style; its architect was Louis Guerre, who had also built the lighthouse on the seafront. Its story goes back to the first missionaries in Pondicherry, the French Capuchins, who arrived in 1632 and were invited back after François Martin founded the city in 1673. The chapel later passed to the Holy Spirit Fathers and, in 1887, to the Foreign Missions of Paris.
The church was first painted white inside and out, which gave it the name White Chapel; the colours outside were changed in the 1900s. A statue of Joan of Arc was given to the church in 1919 by François Gaudart, then mayor of Pondicherry.
What to see
- The Greco-Roman façade with its twin towers, which once held clocks
- Stained-glass windows in red, blue and yellow in the towers
- The statue of Joan of Arc in the small garden nearby
Why visit
A working parish church that is one of the French Quarter’s landmarks, a few steps from the seafront.
- Wheelchair access
- limited
- Coordinates
11.930091, 79.834345