Description
In 1834, an English ophthalmologist, Charles Nayler, married Caroline de Bréa, the niece of General de Bréa; every year, they came to spend the winter in Menton.
The British religious movement grew and led to the construction of three churches in our city: two Anglican churches, Christ Church (built in Garavan Bay in 1860–61 and consecrated on December 25, 1862) and St. John’s Church, and the Scottish Presbyterian Church (built on Rue de la République in 1889–1890 and opened for worship in January 1891)
St. John the Evangelist Church was built in 1867, at the corner of Avenue de Verdun and Avenue Carnot, under the leadership of the son of its first pastor, Reverend William Barber, a native of Leicester, who served in Menton from 1864 to 1878. Unlike the church in the East Bay, this one was built in the fashionable style of the time: Neo-Gothic. Completed in the fall of 1868, it was then surrounded by a beautiful fence along Imperial Road No. 7.
In 1875, an altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary was added to the new north side aisle. The slender, slate-roofed bell tower collapsed during the 1887 earthquake. It was not rebuilt.
The church has been completely renovated in recent years.
