Châte­lail­lon-Plage on the Atlantic coast has a charm typ­i­cal of French bathing resorts estab­lished in the 19th cen­tury. Back then, doc­tors com­monly pre­scribed intake of fresh sea air and bathing in sea water for indus­trial work­ers, send­ing them for treat­ment at health resorts to recover. It was during this period that the church of Sainte-Madeleine was built, in 1882.

From 2019 to 2020, the church’s inte­rior was ren­o­vated, during which a huge fresco was cre­ated by Amaury Dubois, an artist painter from Lyon. To empha­sise the church’s façade during dark­ness, the town of Châte­lail­lon-Plage com­mis­sioned light­ing designer Mar­tial Huguin of MH Light­ing to develop a new light­ing con­cept. He decided to use our Initio Graz lumi­naires for this due to their reserved appear­ance, which enables them to blend har­mo­niously into the sur­round­ings.

As well as cre­at­ing light accents, the LED lumi­naires allow the colour to be varied too. The sides of the church are illu­mi­nated between 2800 K and 6000 K in cold white while the side with the entrance can be immersed in var­i­ous colours such as blue or pink depend­ing on time of year or cer­tain town events. With its aes­thetic façade illu­mi­na­tion, the church of Sainte-Madeleine now radi­ates a wel­com­ing calm­ness as well as shap­ing the night-time appear­ance of the town in this bathing resort.

client: City of Châtelaillon-Plage

lighting designer: Martial Huguin de MH Lighting

photographer: Jean-Baptiste Guerlesquin