Set back on what the people of Le Havre call "the coast", the Carmelite monastery was confronted with a real estate project that would bring many nuisances to its monastic life. It transformed this noxious situation into a positive project by creating, in dialogue with landscape architect Samuel Craquelin and two artists, Chantal Giraud, a visual artist, and Jean-Pierre Lartisien, a sculptor, a garden of silence, a place of meditation, contemplation and reflectionin dialogue with landscape architect Samuel Craquelin and artists Chantal Giraud and sculptor Jean-Pierre Lartisien, the Carmelite monastery has created a garden of silence, a place for meditation, reflection and contemplation of the beauty of nature and life, far from the hustle and bustle of the port and the city.
Visitors of all persuasions are welcome. They will find here a moment of calm and inner peace, confronted by stages rich in symbolism.
The mineral courtyard is arranged in concentric circles around a calvary. Crossing these circles symbolizes an entry into one?s inner self. It's a way for us to evoke the Seven Dwellings of the Interior Castle, a major work by Saint Teresa of Avila. The Garden of Silence is based on the life of prayer described by Saint Teresa of Avila, the four ways of watering one?s inner garden - in other words, one?s soul - and offers a visual and evocative relationship between the walker and the garden.
- The well, in the sense of laborious meditation, the noria, in the sense of meditation opening onto the "sketch" of an encounter with Christ.
- The irrigation channel, in the sense of a deepening and more frequent inner encounter with Jesus Christ. Water flows peacefully from the source to the water mirror.
- The space for rain, prayer and contemplation is given by God. The encounter becomes a covenant and a source for action. Rain nourishes the lawn in the image of Cauchois and limestone meadows.
Chantal Giraud designed the noria in diaphanous glass, a material "metamorphosed, sculpted by fire" to create interesting plays of light. Its design evokes the movement and trickle of drawn water. The cross of light in the Place des 7 demeures is made from the same material. A sculpted ribbed motif animates the glass, like a tree of life.
Visitors of all persuasions are welcome. They will find here a moment of calm and inner peace, confronted by stages rich in symbolism.
The mineral courtyard is arranged in concentric circles around a calvary. Crossing these circles symbolizes an entry into one?s inner self. It's a way for us to evoke the Seven Dwellings of the Interior Castle, a major work by Saint Teresa of Avila. The Garden of Silence is based on the life of prayer described by Saint Teresa of Avila, the four ways of watering one?s inner garden - in other words, one?s soul - and offers a visual and evocative relationship between the walker and the garden.
- The well, in the sense of laborious meditation, the noria, in the sense of meditation opening onto the "sketch" of an encounter with Christ.
- The irrigation channel, in the sense of a deepening and more frequent inner encounter with Jesus Christ. Water flows peacefully from the source to the water mirror.
- The space for rain, prayer and contemplation is given by God. The encounter becomes a covenant and a source for action. Rain nourishes the lawn in the image of Cauchois and limestone meadows.
Chantal Giraud designed the noria in diaphanous glass, a material "metamorphosed, sculpted by fire" to create interesting plays of light. Its design evokes the movement and trickle of drawn water. The cross of light in the Place des 7 demeures is made from the same material. A sculpted ribbed motif animates the glass, like a tree of life.
