Within the Pale
Northern France did not get off lightly in World War II and Calais was among the worst casualties. Notre Dame Church is one of the few built environment survivors and even it was badly damaged. The city became more void than place. The Ministry of Reconstruction and Town Planning was established in November 1944 by President Charles de Gaulle. Under the direction of its Minister Raoul Dautry who held the post from 1944 to 1946, Government architects, planners and engineers who had been in office since 1940 and survived the war formed the backbone of this new department.
Ruins were cleared and construction got underway in Calais in 1948. The original overseeing architect, Jean Gondolo, promoted low rise buildings varying in style between White City flat roofed boxiness and red brick pitched and hipped roof domesticity. Flemish details, especially curvy gables, add a surprisingly retro charm to his Rue Royale. But a visit by Eugène Claudius-Petit, the Minister from 1948 to 1952, resulted in the local architect being sidelined. The Minister dismissed Jean Gondolo’s work as not sufficiently Modern or high rise and he took over the role of city architect. Place d’Armes opening off Rue Royale is more closely aligned with the Modernism and scale of Eugène’s friend Le Corbusier’s oeuvre. Seven decades later, Calais is viewed as a place to pass through rather than visit. A midpoint, not endpoint. Its richness of postwar reconstruction architecture bypassed or unseen. But there is much to behold for the trained and trainable eye.
