La Tourette Monastery

Sainte Marie de La Tourette is a Dominican Order priory, located on a hillside near Lyon, France, designed by the architect Le Corbusier, the architect’s final building. The design of the building began in May 1953 and completed in 1961. The committee that decided the creation of the building considered that the primary duty of the monastery should be the spiritual awakening of the people and in particular the inhabitants of nearby areas. As a result, the monastery was constructed in Eveux-sur-Arbresle, which is just 25 km from Lyon and is accessible by train or car.

In July 2016, the building and sixteen other works by Le Corbusier were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites because of their outstanding testimony to the development of modern architecture.