[2] In 2016, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in along with sixteen other works by Le Corbusier, because of its importance to the development of modernist architecture.

At the time the new building was being constructed, Le Corbusier was not interested in Machine Age architecture; he felt that his style was more primitive and sculptural.

Warning against decadence, reformers within the Church at the time looked to renew its spirit by embracing modern art and architecture as representative concepts.

Father Marie-Alain Couturier, who would also sponsor Le Corbusier for the La Tourette commission, steered the unorthodox project to completion in 1954.

The chapel at Ronchamp is singular in Le Corbusier's oeuvre, in that it departs from his principles of standardisation and the machine aesthetic, giving in instead to a site-specific response.

By Le Corbusier's own admission, it was the site that provided an irresistible genius loci for the response, with the horizon visible on all four sides of the hill and its historical legacy for centuries as a place of worship.

This historical legacy was woven in different layers into the terrain – from the Romans and sun-worshippers before them, to a cult of the Virgin in the Middle Ages, right through to the modern church and the fight against the German occupation.

This roof, both insulating and watertight, is supported by short struts, which form part of a vertical surface of concrete covered with "gunite" and which, in addition, brace the walls of old Vosges stone provided by the former chapel which was destroyed by the bombings.

Le Corbusier reportedly insisted that the shapes and patterns were not arbitrary, but derived from a proportional system based on the Golden Section.

To accommodate them, Le Corbusier also built an outside altar and pulpit, so the large crowds can sit or stand on a vast field on the top of the hill.

[7][8] Robin Evans believes that the ruled surface was integral to the roof design from the beginning, and may have been influenced by Antoine Pevsner's sculptures from welded metal rod, which Le Corbusier felt could be generalized as models for timber shuttering.

[9] Much like the church at Sainte Marie de La Tourette, the roof of Notre Dame du Haut appears to float above the walls.

Le Corbusier himself had consulted with the Association de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame du Haut about adding a monastery, but concrete plans were never developed.

Architects like Richard Meier, Rafael Moneo, and Cesar Pelli signed an online petition denouncing the project.

Immersed in the vegetation of the Bourlemont hill, the monastery is composed of twelve 120 square-feet domestic units for the sisters with spaces for common living (a refectory and workshops), an oratory for religious pilgrims, and a lodge to host visitors.

The new visitors' centre, also dug into the hill, forms the base of the convent, thus replacing a 1960s gatehouse that had obscured sight of the chapel from the town below and was removed in the process of construction.

The all-in budget of $13 million was realised through local government funding, charitable and religious donations, and the sale of the nuns' former convent in Besançon.