The INJS chapel was built between 1956 and 1958 to allow the Sisters of the Congregation of Nevers to perform religious services for the 215 deaf youth who were accompanied to the site at that time. It was named Saint James Chapel, recalling that for centuries, pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela pass nearby.
The chapel and all the buildings created at the time to house the institution were designed by the architect Pierre Mathieu (1911-1997). After the Liberation, it was necessary to face the emergency and launch a considerable expansion. Pierre Mathieu was responsible for the first building on the Pau campus, the Faculty of Science, the buildings of the Faculty of Law and Economics in Pessac, towers A and B, and the Horizon 1 of the administrative city in Bordeaux.
The stained glass windows were designed by the Bordeaux artist Edmond Boissonnet. Born in 1905, Boissonnet responded to numerous commissions in Aquitaine throughout his prolific career (1906-1995), making stained glass windows, murals and monumental mosaics. The stained glass windows of the chapel were made by the master glassmaker Jacques Dupuy, according to Boissonnet’s drawings.
On the right side of the choir, we can admire four narrow and vertical windows, extending over ten meters from floor to ceiling. These windows are framed by concrete uprights and are composed of 16 rectangular panels set in lead. While the two external elements on the right and left are opposite each other, the two central elements rise according to a distinct graphic. The colors used in the lower part of the stained glass highlight black and infernal reds, while in the upper part, seraphic blues bloom. The artist thus creates the impression of a spiritual elevation through the arrangement of colored glasses.
Along this glass wall, at a high height, runs a frieze of 22 stained glass windows, each taking the dimensions of two rectangular panels. These stained glass windows illuminate the nave with their purple, green, yellow and red shards. In addition, seven other stained glass windows located in the loopholes lighting the upper gallery, alternate between square and rectangular shapes, vibrant with yellow, blue, violet and ochre colors.
This chapel is remarkable in many ways. It is one of the last religious buildings built in the late 1950s. It presents both a classic plan, designed by the architect Pierre Mathieu, and very modern abstract stained glass windows created by Boissonnet.
Today, this chapel is labeled «Remarkable contemporary architecture».