Churches of Paris

Through more than 300 colour photographs and behind-the-scenes historical commentary, Churches of Paris reveals some of the world’s most stunning architecture and art – all found in the most historically significant and beautiful churches in Paris, spanning the 12th to the 19th centuries.

Peggy Shannon’s photographs are a glorious record of French cultural heritage and history, showcasing distinguished landmarks as well as lesser-known, seldom-seen wonders that spotlight the culture, traditions and celebrated artisans of their day.

Each church is presented in beautiful colour photographs, with historical narrative, information on its patron saint, and must-see highlights.

The attention to detail, the artistry, craftsmanship, artifacts, stained glass and history showcase the overall majesty and beauty of these treasured monuments in the City of Lights.

ISBN: 978-1-78884-101-6

9 781788 841016

PEGGY SHANNON

Throughout its history, the church has defined the architecture, cultural landscape, and sense of nationalism in Paris. Churches of Paris reveals the evolution of artistic and architectural styles through the notable creations of the past from divisive political upheavals – the French Revolution, the Religious Wars, the Prussian War and the world wars – to the ascent into modernism and the contemporary landscape.

CHURCHES OF PARIS

Churches of Paris unites three enduring passions – religion, art and history.

CHURCHES OF PARIS

56000 £40.00/$60.00

www.accartbooks.com

PEGGY SHANNON

CONTENTS Introduction by Scott Simon

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1st Arrondissement La Sainte-Chapelle 10 Saint-Eustache 24 Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois 34 Saint-Roch 42 2nd Arrondissement Notre-Dame-des-Victoires 52 3rd Arrondissement Sainte-Élisabeth-de-Hongrie 60 Notre-Dame Cathedral 68 Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux 84 Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais 90 Saint-Louis-en-l’Île 101 Saint-Merry 106 Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis 114 5th Arrondissement Saint-Étienne-du-Mont 120 Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas 130 Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre 136 Saint-Séverin 144 6th Arrondissement La Chapelle Saint-Vincent-de-Paul 152 Saint-Germain-des-Prés 160 Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes 170 Saint-Sulpice 178 7th Arrondissement Basilique Sainte-Clotilde 188 La Chapelle de l’Epiphanie des Missions Etrangères et la Salle des Martyrs 194 La Chapelle Notre-Dame de la Médaille Miraculeuse 198 Saint-François-Xavier 206 Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin 216

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8th Arrondissement Cathedral Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky 224 La Madeleine 234 Saint-Augustin 242 The American Cathedral in Paris 251 9th Arrondissement Notre-Dame-de-Lorette 260 La Sainte-Trinité 270 Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile 276 10th Arrondissement Saint-Vincent-de-Paul 280 11th Arrondissement Sainte-Marguerite 290 18th Arrondissement Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre Saint-Pierre de Montmartre Basilique Cathédrale de Saint-Denis

298 306 314

Acknowledgements 330 Author’s Note 331 About the Authors 331 Selected Bibliography 332

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INTRODUCTION Houses of worship are acts of faith. Whether or not you belong to a religious assembly, or believe in God or gods, the places in which we come together for ceremonies of gratitude, praise and love are built by human hands to hold and share the spirits in our hearts.

Peggy Shannon’s photographs and words are acts of faith too. In this beautiful work, she tells the stories of how human hands and hearts have built (and sometimes looted and desecrated), and keep on reimagining and rebuilding, 36 churches in the City of Light.

You can use the book as a guidebook of a kind to plot your own trip. Or you can use the beautiful photos and stories to take your own trip through the churches of Paris, wherever life finds you.

There are extraordinary stories and details to be discovered at every turn along the way. Peggy begins with la Sainte-Chapelle, Louis IX’s lifetime effort to certify and sanctify his lineage from Jesus. Among other relics from the story of Christ, His Crown of Thorns, two fragments from the Crucifixion Cross and one from the Holy Shroud are reverentially displayed here. It is also fascinating that one small stained-glass window, among an extensive display of 13th-century stained glass, is of Queen Esther, who outplotted the wicked Haman to avoid the annihilation of the Jewish people.

But la Sainte-Chapelle, we learn, could not survive inflation and the French Revolution. All of the Passion relics were removed, either looted or relocated for protection. Revolutionaries gouged and scoured the chapel clean of all signs of the royal family. Grain was loaded into a lower chapel. The upper level became a warehouse.

You might bear in mind as you survey today’s majesty that it is human effort that awards values of the heart.

Peggy follows this with a moving presentation of the church of Saint-Eustache, which was built on the site of what was once a Roman temple. It, too, was targeted during the French Revolution. It was turned into a barn, its treasures then looted by radicals. An 18-metre-tall (59 feet) organ was destroyed by fire. But a lottery helped rebuild the pipe organ, and attracted the talents of Cesar Frank, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt. The church also developed a special relationship with Les Halles, the central fresh food market of Paris, especially its pork butchers. Today there is a stained-glass panel, Three Sausages and a Swine, that shows Saint Antoine, patron saint of charcutiers, accompanied by a pig (although the thought occurs to me that the swine may not consider Antoine to be their patron saint).

Today, writes Peggy, Keith Haring’s Life of Christ triptych, which he completed just two weeks before his death in 1990, resides in the church. His foundation gave this piece to the city of Paris, which gave it to SaintEustache to mark the church’s role in offering support during the AIDs epidemic. It is another reminder that the great churches of Paris are not just edifices. They are human institutions that grow, deepen and change.

Peggy writes with matchless depth about Notre-Dame Cathedral, ‘la Grande Dame’, which so many consider to be the beating heart of Paris, carved from limestone. It is especially wonderful to read about the story of Emmanuel, an 11.8-tonne (13-ton) bell that hangs in the church’s south tower, where it has pealed over the city to announce the end of wars, the coronation of kings, and give voice to steely unity with New York and all Americans in the wake of the attacks of 9-11. Emmanuel was taken down from the cathedral during the French Revolution. But she was not melted down, as were other bells, to be forged into cannons. Emmanuel was eventually ordered back into the tower by no less than Napoleon.

Peggy also tells of Father Jean-Marc Fournier, chaplain of the Paris Fire Brigade, who, with 20 volunteer firefighters, rushed into the cathedral to save the Crown of Thorns worn by Christ, the Tunic of Saint Louis, and other utterly priceless relics as Notre-Dame burned on 15 April 2019. Father Jean-Marc ultimately said, ‘Sometimes we need tangible signs of faith,’ and their courage in that moment seemed to embody the devotion that Parisians, and many around the world, feel for Notre-Dame. But Notre-Dame has been sacked, burned and restored several times. By the Normans first, and then by radicals of the French Revolution. In fact, for a brief time, the site of the cathedral housed Robespierre’s Cult of the Supreme Being.

Napoleon restored Notre-Dame as a house of worship, but it was again attacked and looted during the July Revolution of 1830. German ammunition ignited wooden dormer supports during WWI. And then, of course, Adolph Hitler ordered Von Choltitz, his Paris garrison commander, to flatten Notre-Dame as Nazi forces left the city in surrender. Three tonnes (3 tons) of explosives were loaded into the cathedral. Hitler wrote in a telegram, ‘Paris must not fall into enemy hands except as a field of ruins.’ Von Choltitz put the order in his pocket. Free French forces rang Emmanuel to declare the liberation of the city, and were soon joined by 40,000 other bells in churches all over France.

Churches of Paris brims with this kind of wealth of stories from churches in arrondissements and neighbourhoods all over Paris, and throughout centuries. The churches, after all, have been the scenes of our most sacred ceremonies, our hopes and our faith. We have made repairs to their stone walls for strength, and to their stained-glass images so that we may rejoice in their light, for solace and inspiration. Peggy’s photographs and words remind us of the riches of the human stories that reside in the churches of Paris, waiting to be discovered and cherished anew.

Scott Simon 9

1ST ARRONDISSEMENT

LA SAINTE-CHAPELLE THE HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL La Sainte-Chapelle, the 13th-century jewel box built by King Louis IX, features the most significant in situ compilation of stained glass in the world. Although the windows’ ever-changing array of colour awes the imagination, la Sainte-Chapelle was fashioned as a reliquary to showcase Louis IX’s treasury of 22 relics of the Passion. This collection legitimised the king’s religious lineage from Christ and secured France’s position as the chosen Christian land equal to the Holy Roman Empire. Nearly 1,000 years before Louis IX carried the sacred treasure to Paris barefoot, pilgrims exalted the relics in fourth-century Jerusalem. By the 13th century, the holy artifacts were being preserved by Baldwin II, the last Roman Emperor in Constantinople and cousin of Louis IX. In 1239, Baldwin struggled to fund his country’s military expenses. With no significant resources, he pledged the Crown of Thorns worn by Christ during the Crucifixion to the Venetians for a line of credit. Hearing of his cousin’s difficulty, Louis IX was eager to acquire the penultimate artifact of medieval Christianity and paid the Venetians 135,000 livres to obtain the Crown of Thorns, an enormous sum even for a king. Two years later, Louis IX purchased the remaining Passion relics from the financially strapped emperor. Included in the treasury were two fragments of Christ’s Crucifixion Cross: the True Cross and the Cross of Victory. The collection also encompassed: the nails used in the Crucifixion; the spear used by the Roman soldier, Longinus, to pierce Christ’s side; the Holy Sponge which Roman soldiers offered Christ to drink from; the stone of the Holy Sepulchre; a fragment of the Holy Shroud which wrapped Christ’s body after his death; a small vial of Christ’s blood; the Mantle of Purple (the garment placed over Jesus’ shoulders by soldiers who were mocking his claim that he was the king of the Jews; also known as the purple robe of mockery); the reed; the rod of Moses; and the skulls of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Clement and Saint Blaise.

Louis IX secured the relics in the modest Saint-Nicholas chapel within the Palais de la Cité, the king’s medieval residence (now the Palais de Justice). Resolving to create a sanctuary worthy of the sacred treasure, Louis IX integrated la Sainte-Chapelle into the heart of his palace. This would ensure his future dynastic fame, the kingdom’s political authority, and the king’s direct lineage from Christ.

(Right) Upper chapel exterior, western portal, depicting The Last Judgement, restored in 1850.

(Far right) Detail of the right-hand side of the portal, upper chapel, with bas-reliefs depicting scenes of Noah’s Ark (top), Adam and Eve (middle), and fleurs-de-lis and castles of Castile in honour of Louis IX and his mother, Blanche of Castile (bottom).

(Opposite) Apse and northern façade, behind the gates of the Palais de Justice, seen from boulevard du Palais.

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The 33-metre (108-foot) steeple was rebuilt five times, most recently between 1853 and 1855. Gilded fleurs-de-lis, angels bearing trumpets or instruments of the Passion embellish the cedar spire, while the figures of the apostles surround its base. A statue of Saint Michel stands on lead masks depicting eight French kings.

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Chapel of the Virgin with stained glass and keystone.

renowned 19th-century Gsell workshop’s stained-glass panel of the Tree of Jesse appears in the upper level to the left. Gsell’s work integrates a large 16th-century stained-glass panel featuring the Virgin, Isaac and Abraham, as well as adding images of David, Jacob and Solomon to the pane. The chapel of the Virgin was returned to its original vibrancy in the 19th century by Victor Baltard, the renowned architect of Les Halles.

To the right of the chapel of the Virgin are the museum-quality oil paintings and works of marble and glass of the Brégy chapel. Three wall-sized, richly hued, and detailed landscapes illustrating the death and ascension of twin Saints Gervais and Protais span the walls between Sylvie Gaudin’s two vibrant abstract stained-glass depictions of the Pentecost and the Crucifixion. Alexandre Hesse’s 19th-century wall-sized canvas, Translation of the Bodies of Saint Gervais and Saint Protais, offers a dramatic portrayal of the lives of the twin martyrs.

Beneath the painting is the large assemblage of Chancellor Michel Le Tellier’s 2-metre-high (6½-foot-high) funerary mausoleum. The collection of figures was carved in the late 17th century from Jules HardouinMansart’s drawings. A white marble figure of the chancellor accompanied by a cherub, reclines on top of his black-marble sarcophagus, held aloft by dual white-marble busts. Allegorical white-marble sentinels Religion and Strength appear on either side of the memorial. To the right of the Chancellor’s monument are three white-marble effigies honouring the Potier family, also designed by Hardouin-Mansart. The 17th-century statues depicting René Potier, duke of Tresmes, his wife, Marguerite de Luxembourg, Princess of Tingry, with the family dog at her side, and their son, one of their nine children, kneel in prayer atop thick pedestals.

The Saint-Gervais organ is one of the oldest in Paris and a registered historical monument. Many of its parts date from 1500. Members of the Couperin family, recognised throughout Europe for their musical accomplishment, played the instrument for 173 years, from 1653 to 1826. For over 200 years, the family lived next to the church, where a plaque commemorating their tenure is visible.

The organ played by the Couperins was produced by François-Henri Clicquot, who also built organs for Notre-Dame Cathedral, Saint-Sulpice, and the royal chapel at Versailles. Clicquot incorporated parts of the previous organ in his creation. Most of the 41 stops are quite old – 17 date from the 17th century, with 15 from the 18th century, including all the reeds. Only five stops are contemporary, reconstructed in 1974. In addition, all wind-chests date from before the Revolution.

Elements of the magnificent 12-by-10-metre (40-by-33-foot) oak organ case date from 1603, but much of the grand sideboard and three turrets were crafted in the third quarter of the 18th century. Its face is adorned 94

with an angel performing on a string instrument between lush garland ornamentation and Corinthian columns. The tribune is bolstered by an extensive stone ledge ornamented with baroque flourishes, shells, musical instruments, trumpeting angels, and flourishes of lavish vegetation.

The baptismal chapel, first on the left from the entrance, features a 5.5-by-3.7-metre (18-by-12-foot) wooden replica of the western façade, constructed in 1615. At the room’s centre is the 1-metre-high (3-foothigh) octagonal baptismal font, its stone carved in the last quarter of the 15th century.

During the 20th century, a series of modifications in the nave and choir radically transformed the interior.

The 17th and 18th-century choir organ amid the north side-stalls sits in the southern right-hand transept.

Wooden choir pews and wrought-iron communion rails were eliminated, as were the ornate chandeliers illuminating the length of the interior. Carpeting was laid across the sanctuary obscuring the choir’s blackand-white marble chequerboard floor and the nave’s wooden parquet. The magnificent churchwarden’s pew, opposite the nave’s preaching pulpit, was wholly removed from the church to the dismay of parishioners.

Wooden rails sequestering the nave’s perimeter are long absent. Classic ladder-back chairs with rush seats were replaced with low-to-the-floor individual wooden benches, unlike any other in the churches of Paris.

One feature, the Saint-Gervais Elm, has remained a constant presence over the centuries. A succession of elm trees, each dedicated to the holy martyrs and known as the Saint-Gervais Elm, has grown in the western cobblestone plaza fronting the church since the Middle Ages. The current elm was planted in 1935. In medieval times, the tree was a meeting ground for friends and colleagues. Many Parisians settled disputes with an occasional duel under the elm, although the bold assertion ‘I’ll see you under the elm’ typically neglected to state the day of the contest. Magistrates adopted a more peaceful approach, settling cases under the boughs of the makeshift court, nicknaming the elm ‘the judgement tree’. Saint-Gervais is no longer a parish church, as it has been guided by the Monastic Community of Jerusalem since 1975.

The Golden Chapel.

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MUST-SEE THE PREACHING PULPIT The magnificent baroque preaching pulpit added to the nave in 1651 offered clergy an alternative to the historic limestone rood screen. A sculpture of Samson, who clasps the jawbone of a donkey in his hand and kneels on a dead lion, holds the wooden pulpit aloft. While classical carvings of the seven theological and cardinal virtues decorate the base of the preaching pulpit’s lower bowl or tank. On the curved staircase and tank face are detailed bas-reliefs of the life of Saint Étienne. These carvings alternate with oval portraits of the four Evangelists and two great Doctors of the Church, Saint Jerome, shown with a lion who accompanied him in the desert, and a mitred Saint Augustin, who holds a burning heart in his hand. Trimming the upper canopy is a female-shaped angel with a trumpet in hand alongside multiple cherubs at play along the perimeter. The canopy’s gilded underside is accented with robin-egg blue, a sumptuous garland, and bas-reliefs.

KEYSTONE IN NAVE The lierne vault above the nave’s main altar at the crossing is an exquisite display of Flamboyant Gothic carving and symbolic ornamentation. The 12 ribs, evoking the apostles, merge at the centre into one 5.5-metre-long (18-foot-long) ornately carved keystone capped by a shield bearing the Lamb of God. Cherubs surround the pendant’s lower border, with their feet in the air and leaning on their elbows, their hands extend over the rim to clasp a gilt Crown of Thorns above the Agnus Dei emblem.

Representations of the 12 disciples continue around the keystone’s base. Adorning the vault are sculptures of the four Evangelists’ attributes (see page 78) and blue-andgold medallions bearing their names. Eight circular rosettes join either side of the evangelists to close the group. The balance of the star-shaped vault is embellished with carvings of lush floral and fruited garlands, playful cherubs and ornamental motifs.

The less ornate, but equally stunning, richly painted boss appears at the ribs‘ crossing throughout the balance of the nave. These decorative medallions feature angel heads and coats of arms, as well as biblical and national symbols.

PAINTED-GLASS WINDOWS IN THE BACK GALLERIES One of the most exceptional painted-glass collections in the capital, second only to la Sainte-Chapelle, is located down a common hallway, to the right of the chapel of the Virgin, just beyond the reception office. There are 12 intricately detailed enamel paintings on white-glass windows. Installed in the eastern gallery’s long dark corridor the paintings are hung at waist height to allow close inspection of the panels’ extraordinary details.

In 1605, several unknown masters created an extraordinary collection of 24 hand-painted enamel windows to decorate the cloister. Tragically, half of the windows were destroyed during the Revolution. After the conflict, numerous fragments from this unprecedented work were salvaged from the ruins and incorporated into the stained glass on the north side. In the 19th century, a parishioner saved 12 of the original panels, restoring and reassembling the windows. These panes were then refitted and installed in their initial settings and now occupy the galleries of the charnel house.

Master glaziers employed a rare process to craft the windows. Unlike typical stained glass, the artists applied a mixture of enamel pigments and glass paste directly to the clear glass. This process allowed a high level of detail and shading, similar to how artists apply paint on canvas. The enamels were then baked in a kiln to set the colours. While most of the windows were constructed in this manner, a few panes mix enamels with traditional stained glass. This appears primarily in parts with red glass, which is often mass tinted because of the difficulty of attaining the intense pigment.

The Eucharist and its Old Testament prefigurations thematically unite the disparate windows. Two windows are exceptionally notable. A faithful reproduction of Albrecht Dürer’s The Last Supper (1523) is exquisite in its detailed composition. Another window, depicting the Mystical Winepress, graphically portrays Christ sacrificing Himself on a wine press altar for the salvation of humanity.

Saint-Étienne’s cloister of the charnel house was built behind the apse in the early 17th century, taking its name from the small mass grave it surrounded on three sides. The graveyard, which could contain no more than 20 bodies, measured 10 metres (33 feet) in width and 11 metres (36 feet) in length. The size was reduced in the 16th century by the nave’s construction and again in the 17th century when the chapel of the Virgin was enlarged.

Later, a larger graveyard occupied the front square facing the Panthéon. Victor Baltard converted the small graveyard to establish the chapel of catechism and the marriage sacristy during the mid-19th century. The patch of grass between the apse and the charnel house cloister offers a glimpse of this past.

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THE CHAPEL OF SAINTE GENEVIÈVE The neo-Gothic chapel of Sainte Geneviève was added to Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in 1853.

Its footprint is split into two sections, with a large ornate altar to the left and a stunning reliquary to the right. The rectangular chapel is wrapped in intricate ornamentation. At the centre, an embellished 19th-century baldachin canopies a life-sized gilt-copper casket. Inside the filigreed enclosure are stone fragments from the saint’s original sarcophagus. The stones were authenticated by the last abbot of Sainte Geneviève’s abbey following the Revolution.

Statues of wise and foolish virgins cited in the Bible decorate the front of the ornate baldachin above the shrine. On the reverse, Saint Simeon the Stylite is shown in prayer to Sainte Geneviève alongside the epic Latin poem, The Thebaid.

Multiple churches and abbeys outside Paris, which possessed Sainte Geneviève’s relics, returned the saint’s bones to Saint-Étienne-duMont and Notre-Dame after their collections were destroyed in the Revolution. One of the larger relics is displayed in a chest-shaped shrine on the chapel’s right-hand side. The gilt reliquary is ornamented with gems, sculpture and vibrantly painted medallions of the saint’s life. Visible inside the blue velvet-lined case is a glass vial with a section of Geneviève’s finger bone. A reliquary of similar shape, but with grander embellishment, is elevated over the choir’s high altar. This small-scale model of the saint’s reliquary is carried in the annual Sainte-Geneviève procession from Saint-Étienne-du-Mont to Notre-Dame.

The 14th-century style altar, topped with intricate gilded reredos, features a polychromed statue of Sainte Geneviève at the centre. The figure is a replica of the original from the pre-Revolution façade. In her left hand are two keys that identify Sainte Geneviève as the city’s patron saint; a cross medallion on her chest symbolises her lifelong dedication to God. Peering over the statue’s shoulders is an angel with a candle in hand and a ghastly being clenching Geneviève’s candle. These dualistic figures chronicle the allegorical narrative of the devil’s attempts to extinguish Geneviève’s flame of illuminating faith, which is thwarted by a steadfast angel who supports her unwavering conviction. Statues of Saint Germain and King Clovis appear in canopied niches to her left and right.

Three 19th-century stained-glass windows, created by the workshop of master glassmaker Édouard Didron, surmount gilt wood-panel tracery across the room’s width. Saint-Étienne, the abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, and Tour Clovis are visible in The Procession of the Shrine of Sainte Geneviève at the far right. The window details the grand procession of 1129 when thousands of faithful carried the saint’s reliquary from Saint-Étienne to Notre-Dame Cathedral. Believers hoped to end the plague of ergot poisoning, a toxic fungus that grows on grain, which had killed 14,000 Parisians. Those touching the reliquary were cured and, following the procession, it is said that only three people died. Declaring this a miracle, Pope Innocent II ordered the reliquary’s annual procession. The two windows near the altar, The History of Sainte Geneviève, contain episodes of her life, from Geneviève’s blessing by Bishop Germain as a child, through to her death.

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MUST-SEE THE DOME AT THE CROSSING Parisians had never seen a dome of this magnitude when the 9.5-metrediameter (31-foot-diameter) wood and plaster dome was built in 1663.

Its scale was unprecedented, as was its placement on a drum. Although Marguerite de Valois’ chapel dome in the former convent of PetitsAugustins, now the École des Beaux-Arts, was erected first, it was smaller.

The rear Italian-style campanile, a rarity in the 17th century, and the dome are unmistakable from rue Cassette; both stand as stylistic retorts to the Protestant Reformation’s architectural austerity. The dome’s pioneering features include its lantern crown, a soaring elevation above the roofline, and its skyward aperture, which was viewed as a portal to heaven. These attributes gathered light inside the drum that pooled on the floor below to define the nave from the sanctuary. Additionally, the illumination metaphorically ordered the secular and sacred realms.

The ornamentation of the dome and its pendentives was also groundbreaking. Walthère Damery, an artist from Liège, Belgium, painted the Order’s iconic figures directly on plaster instead of canvas affixed to the surface. Damery’s trompe-l’oeil portrayal of the Ravishment of Elijah is the earliest artwork painted inside a dome and the first painting executed with a bottom-upwards perspective. This achievement was so rare Damery’s masterwork was one of only two domes painted in the capital in the 16th century.

Damery’s imagery painted inside the dome layers multiple messages within one landscape over several hierarchical planes. The celestial kingdom and earthly world are simultaneously isolated and united in the painting while chronicling the Order’s foundational narrative. The artist orders the figures into three historical tiers, illustrating the lineage’s transmission from the early biblical prophet, illustrated in the dome’s apex, which inspired subsequent generations of monastics shown on the drum’s perimeter and the pendentives.

The prophet Elijah, spiritual founder of the contemplative Order, is portrayed ascending to heaven in a fiery celestial chariot at the pinnacle of the dome’s saucer.

Elijah’s white cloak is shown falling to earth where Elisha, his disciple and chosen successor, bounded by disciples, leans against the optical-illusion balustrade of the drum to catch his teacher’s cape. The transfer of the white mantle from teacher to student is considered the genesis of the Carmelite’s modern vestments.

Representing the Carmelite elders are illusionary statues illustrated inside the drum between the two chronologies. Saint Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem and author of the Carmelite Rule of Life, Saints Cyril and Athanasius, each an archbishop of Alexandria, and Saint Angelus of Jerusalem, a Jewish convert, are depicted in faux niches between pairs of clerestory windows encircling the drum.

Three influential Carmelite figures are depicted on the dome’s four pendentives with two supports dedicated to Teresa of Ávila’s visions. The saint’s gift of transverberation is featured on the right-hand pendentive above the choir. In the painting, an angel pierces Teresa’s heart with a golden arrow of divine love as she kneels in ecstasy. On the support, Mary presents a brown scapular to Simon Stock, the Carmelite monk whose vision of the Virgin Mother presenting the Scapular of the Order established the Brown Scapular devotion. Pendentives near the nave include John of the Cross gazing upon an image of Christ burdened by the weight of the Holy Cross and another of Teresa’s visions. In this scene, Saint Joseph presents the white Carmelite cloak to the saint, who clasps the crucifix necklace given to her by Mary as protection when the saint reformed the Order.

THE HIGH ALTAR Saint-Joseph des Carmes’ stunning choir dominates the scope of the rear wall.

At its heart is the meticulously detailed gilt bronze tabernacle designed by Alexandre Lenoir, the founder of the Museum of French Monuments. This 19th-century dome-shaped vessel replaces the 1633 original destroyed in the Revolution. Behind the tabernacle is a frame of the gilded lattice which, with its red velvet curtains pulled aside, allowed the Carmelites to remain cloistered while celebrating Mass with the parishioners in the nave. Hanging above the tabernacle is Quantin Varin’s 1624 mannerist portrait The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Anne of Austria, who commissioned the sanctuary’s painting, is shown as a young woman cradling an infant, her hands clasped, with a loving gaze turned on the Holy Child. Évrard d’Orléans’ carved Last Supper adorns the lower face of the high altar. Queen Jeanne d’Evreux, wife of Charles IV the Fair, commissioned the white marble relief in 1340 for Notre-Dame-la-Royale, the Cistercian Abbey of Maubuisson north-west of Paris. The carved slab was confiscated from the abbey’s high altar during the Revolution then installed in Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes following the conflict.

Flanking the tabernacle are four black Belgian marble pillars with gilt capitals. The columns were appropriated during the Revolution and returned after the uprising.

Statues of Elijah, dating from the 16th century, with Teresa of Ávila, carved in the 19th century, fill niches left and right of the pillars. These replace the original paintings of the figures that occupied this space before the Revolution. The two beautifully carved doors that border the altar date from the 17th century.

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THE CHAPEL OF THE VIRGIN Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Italian sculptor, known as the originator of baroque-style sculpture and the successor to Michelangelo, designed the chapel set in the left transept and its marble Virgin and Child. His student, Antonio Raggi, whose sculptures adorn the exterior of Saint Peter’s Basilica, executed the statue in Rome in 1655 under Bernini’s direction. The carving was a gift from Cardinal Barberini, the nephew of Pope Urban VIII. A set of red marble pillars, confiscated in the Revolution then returned to the church, border the statue. The chapel maintains much of its original altarpieces, as does the facing chapel dedicated to Saint Teresa of Ávila.

A bas-relief marble border illustrating the Virgin’s life and the theological virtues was added between the Virgin statue and the altar in the 19th century. Overhead is a vibrant 19th-century stained glass of the Virgin and Child seated on a golden throne. Saint Dominic kneels to the Virgin’s right, holding a lily, his star attribute shining in his halo. The Dominican Order’s founder and the Holy Mother have opposite ends of a rosary in the window, visually linking the pair. The portrayal of Sainte Catherine of Sienna to the left recalls her vision of the Saviour. Christ offered Catherine two crowns in the vision, one of glory and the other of thorns, asking which crown she will choose on earth and in heaven. Her choice is revealed in the window: Catherine holds a crown of thorns; her later glory lays nearby on the floor.

THE CHAPEL OF SAINTE ANNE This small, intimate space is used for personal prayer. It is a quiet space, accessible from the right transept and open to the choir, holding less than half a dozen faithful. Its wooden wall panels and ceiling are covered entirely by lush painted scenes of the life of the Virgin Mary, including the Ascension, the presentation of Mary in the temple, the wedding of the Virgin, the Pentecost, and the death of the Virgin. Large illustrations of the four Evangelists flank the coronation of the Virgin at the centre of the vault. Gilded cherubim, baskets of fruit, and elaborately carved baroque moulding adorn the chapel.

The coat of arms of Pierre Brûlart, marquis de Sillery, and Minister of Foreign Affairs and War under Louis XIII, stands above the large painting of Sainte Anne, Joachim and Mary over the altar, in tribute to Brûlart’s endowment of the chapel in 1620. Georges Lallemand completed the mannerist ornamentation four years later. The chapel was restored in 2013.

THE CHAPEL OF SAINT JACQUES The stunning paintings found inside the chapel of Saint Jacques were completed around 1636

by Abraham van Diepenbeeck, a disciple of Rubens. Like those in the chapel of Sainte Anne, the pictures are original to the church, having been hidden during the Revolution. The chapel was ceded to Jacques d’Estampes, lord of Valencay, who dedicated it to his patron saint.

The walls are adorned with portrayals of Saints James, Dominic and Louis. A large painting of Saint Jacques the Major hangs over the altar, and the Transfiguration of Jesus witnessed by Elijah and Moses is represented on the vault. The ceiling’s Transfiguration is crafted from the Italian illusionist perspective of ‘di sotto in sù’, with the subject depicted feet first, appearing to float above the viewer’s head.

THE MARTYRS’ CRYPT Many carrying marks from fatal sabre blows, the martyrs’ relics are memorialised in repositories throughout the crypt. The bones rest in velvet-lined wooden cases and beautifully carved stucco reliquaries. Painted medallions commemorating the archbishop of Arles, the bishop of Beauvais, and the bishop of Saintes rest upon one of the relic cases. Mother Camille de Soyecourt, who prevented the convent’s destruction, is interred near the relics.

Black marble plaques engraved with the martyrs’ names appear throughout the crypt. One memorial carries the poignant text: ‘Having preferred death to the violation of the holy law of God, they were slain’. Artifacts from the massacre include bloodstained pavers and wall fragments from areas utilised as the mock courtroom. Further evidence of the radicals’ abhorrent behaviour appears on a detention-cell wall where radicals wiped their bloody swords.

Incorporated in the crypt is the chamber which held Monseigneur Georges Darboy, the archbishop of Paris, during the Commune uprising from March to May 1871. The cell was dismantled from La Roquette prison and reinstalled in Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes in the 20th century. The installation includes the bloodstained wall upon which Communards shot the archbishop four days before the uprising’s conclusion.

THE CHAPEL OF FRÉDÉRIC OZANAM Ozanam was a 20-year-old student at the Sorbonne when he founded the Conference of Charity in 1833. The nascent organisation developed into the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Ozanam became a professor at the Sorbonne and taught at the educational institute in the former convent.

He regularly attended Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes with his family, and when he died at age 40, Ozanam was interred in the crypt. Pope John Paul II beatified the freethinker and advocate of the poor and working class in 1997.

Scenes of the Good Samaritan adorn the chapel, which was renovated in 2013 to honour the second centenary of Ozanam’s birth. A white marble plaque with a portrait of Ozanam against its face completes the memorial chapel.

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November 1886, which coincided with the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Music that day was provided by a boys’ choir brought from London in 1884 to establish a single-gender choir to replace the existing mixed choir. An English choirmaster directed 16 members at first, which quickly increased to 24. Reverand Morgan established a choir school where the boys received education and board in exchange for singing at Holy Trinity. With the arrival of WWI, a mixed choir was reinstated.

In 1905, the steeple was raised in multiple stages with Chassignelles limestone in the tower and Savonnières in the spire. Two years later, the rector planted the spire’s crowning stone, using the silver trowel presented to him by the builders. Topped by a gilded rooster finial, a gun-metal cross was fixed to the pinnacle, a memorial to the cathedral’s first bishop. The tower and spire were dedicated on Easter Sunday 1909. With a spire 85 metres (280 feet) high, the cathedral became the fourth-tallest church in Paris. An electronic carillon of bells from England was added to the tower in 1952. Unique to all of Europe, the carillon scaled 25 notes. Upon hearing of the carillon, Art Buchwald, the American columnist-humourist, who lived across the street from the American Cathedral, railed against the addition even before the bells were dedicated. He penned numerous satirical letters on the trauma the carillon inflicted on residents, publishing them under pseudonyms in the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune. Buchwald needn’t have bothered; a failure in the carillon’s electrical system left the bells inoperable.

A tribune organ in a decorative oak case crafted by the prestigious firm of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, was installed in October 1887 in the south-east corner, 4.9 metres (16 feet) above the chancel. Félix-Alexandre Guilmant, organist of la Trinité, performed at the inauguration of the grand organ. After renovations to the organ in 1921, a smaller antiphonal baroque organ by Michigan-based Lauck Pipe Organ Company was added in 1970 to the rear gallery above the nave. Bernard Dargassies unified both organs in 1993, which resulted in a great organ with two parts. Each instrument may be played individually or simultaneously from the CavailléColl console in the chancel. The grand organ has 5,206 pipes and 80 stops.

When completed, Holy Trinity’s rectangular design measured 45 metres (146 feet) long and 20 metres (70 feet) wide. Saint-Maximin and Savonnières limestone and Ancy-le-Franc marble were used to construct the building.

There are 16 massive columns of marble separating the 18-metre-high (58-foot-high) central nave from its two lateral naves, where rows of solid oak pews can accommodate 1,000 people. Oak was selected to vault the nave, while stone enclosed the chancel and aisle vaults. The use of wood in the nave enhanced the excellent acoustics.

Flags of France, the EU and each US state are mounted in the upper nave over both sides of the central aisle. Marble

Painting of the Epiphany, Jacopo Bassano, 16th century, with a Greek Icon of the Annunciation, 17th century, Saint Paul the Traveller Chapel.

Triptych altarpiece recalls the martyrdom of two Spanish brothers, Saints Justus and Pastor, by Roussillon Master, 15th-century, Martyrs’ chapel.

(Opposite) Tapestry in honour of Saint Bartholomew’s Church, NYC, by Eliane Rouget; carved oak stalls with needlepoint cushions honouring Ben Franklin and James McNeill Whistler.

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The Chapel of Marriage by Victor Orsel (painted 1833–50).

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MUST-SEE PAINTING OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE HOUSE OF LORETO A glorious painting of the Virgin is featured in the dome of the choir. PierreFrançois Delorme’s Triumph of the Virgin or The Translation of the House of Loreto surrounds the Holy Mother with adoring angels while Faith and Hope appear to her right, with Charity and Justice to her left. Santa Casa, her childhood home and site of the Annunciation, appears in the lower centre of the painting.

A popular tale of the translation of Santa Casa, the home of the Virgin Mary in Nazareth, arose between 1465 and 1472 from the writings of an Italian monk named Teramano. The monk wrote of a flight of angels who saved the Holy Mother’s home from destruction during the Muslim occupation of Palestine in 1291. According to Teramano, the angels secured the home in Dalmatia, now Croatia. With another attack years later, they ferried Santa Casa to Ancona, Italy, and hid the structure among laurels, also called lorettes. On learning that Santa Casa would reappear from concealment the following year, the angelic stewards moved the home to the top of a hill in the town of Loreto. By the 15th century, Loreto (in French, Lorette) and the basilica surrounding Santa Casa had become a popular pilgrimage site of Marian devotion. Churches across the globe were dedicated to Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. It is from this central Italian town and its protective laurels that the church takes its name.

A less romantic but more factual version of the Santa Casa story is revealed in Vatican archives and archaeological excavations of the present-day basilica in Loreto. It is believed Santa Casa was discovered in Palestine by Sainte Helena, mother of Constantine, around 326. Louis IX made a pilgrimage to Santa Casa in 1251, where he found a cave and one small room surrounded by walls from the Byzantine era. Crusaders built a basilica around the site in an attempt to shelter the sacred home from attack. In 1263 the Sultan of Cairo invaded the palace in Palestine, prompting several Christian families to flee the region. The Angelis, Italian members of the royal family in Constantinople, gathered their possessions, including Santa Casa, and moved to Loreto, Italy.

Santa Casa was dismantled stone by stone and reconstructed according to its original plan. Actual events were forgotten centuries later, and Teramano’s fable became wildly popular. The town of Loreto expanded to serve the flood of pilgrims longing to see the Virgin Mary’s home. Later, a basilica was built around Santa Casa to shield it from the crowds.

THE BAPTISMAL CHAPEL Adolphe Roger’s artistic brilliance is on full display in the cove-shaped Baptism chapel and its adjacent alcove. The intensely coloured murals leap from a background of shimmering gold. Their narratives span the Old Testament beginning with Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden and ending with the Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist. Illustrating the renewal of the soul through baptism are depictions of the baptism of King Clovis, the first Catholic king, the Roman Emperor Constantine, and people from Peru and Ethiopia.

Roger’s decision to include depictions of the vegetation used to make the sacred chrism oil, used to anoint the baptismal candidate’s head, suggests the artist consulted a theologian for his composition. He began the work in 1832 and completed the chapel eight years later. During his studies in Italy, he was inspired by the German Nazarene movement and the gold used by ProtoRenaissance painters. The humid Paris climate prohibited Roger from using fresco or oil paints, instead he chose a technique of cold-wax painting, which was resistant to moisture.

The chapel was recently restored by 19 conservators between 2015 and 2017 with support from the World Monuments Fund, the City of Paris, and a generous grant from the American Express Company. The balustrade, marble base moulding, and the sculpted bronze of Saint John the Baptist on the crest of the baptismal tank, which is decorated with garlands and the heads of lambs by Francisque Joseph Duret, were also restored.

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SAINT-PIERRE DE MONTMARTRE THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

The façade was modified in the 17th century to include three doors instead of one. Pope John Paul II blessed the current bronze door panels, designed and cast in Rome, in 1980.

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It is rare in post-Revolution Paris for two Catholic churches to operate within a block of each other. Yet, SaintPierre de Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur Basilica exist alongside a shared thoroughfare divided by over eight centuries of history. Both churches possess distinctive qualities and charm, and despite, or perhaps because of, their proximity, each flourishes. Saint-Pierre is insulated from the clamour of sightseers and vehicles visiting their neighbour in the perennially trendy Montmartre butte by a broad stone wall around its perimeter. Any residual noise from visitors en route to nearby place du Tertre is buffered by the church’s thick Romanesque

The Door of Our Lady, one of three bronze entrance doors, created in 1980 by Tommaso Gismondi, portrays scenes from the lives of Saint Peter, the Virgin Mary and Saint Denis, the patron saints of the church.

walls which support the tranquil, intimate space. This popular square, brimming with lively cafes and plein-air painters, was controlled by the Benedictine Abbey of Montmartre until 1635. In La Mère Catherine, SaintPierre’s former presbytery and the square’s oldest café, the term bistro was first used.

Saint-Pierre de Montmartre’s foundation is the oldest in Paris (or a close second), accommodating location, date of incorporation in the City, and various religious structures, such as a church or abbey. In his Commentaries, Julius Caesar recognises that Druid worship existed in the area before the Roman incursion c.50 bc. Recent discoveries of prehistoric ruins and Gallo-Roman artifacts confirm that people inhabited Montmartre by at least 1000 bc, and that two Roman temples dedicated to Mars and Mercury had once stood on its bluff.

Researchers deliberate whether one of the temples stood under the present structure of Saint-Pierre or in the neighbouring Benedictine priory garden. Some have questioned whether devotion in the temples was to Mars or Mercury. This discussion intensified when Théodore Vacquier, a municipal archaeologist for Paris, unearthed the foundations of a Roman temple near the apse of Saint-Pierre in 1878. Vacquier classified the remains as provenance of the Temple of Mercury. This finding contradicts an earlier study in 1657 by historian Henri Sauvai who placed the Temple of Mars in the Benedictine priory garden. Most scholars agree, however, that SaintPierre de Montmartre is the first Christian church of the Gallic tribe, Parisii, and that it was built upon the grounds of an ancient polytheistic temple. Today, evidence of this legacy is visible in the church’s interior. Four marble columns repurposed from the early Gallo-Roman temple, now considered to have been dedicated to Mercury, are incorporated in the present church: two flank the entrance doors and two stand in the apse.

Evidence of oyster shell fossils in the pillars’ structure dates their formation to over 1,800 years ago.

Excavations in 1949, and 1975–80, organised by École Pratique des Hautes Études investigated the ground surrounding the former cloister of the upper Abbey of Montmartre. They unearthed a Merovingian necropolis from the fourth century with signs of devotion to Saint Peter, the architect of the Christian Church and leading apostle. The discovery of a crypt bordering the lower Abbey of Montmartre in 1611 revealed a covert sanctuary where Denis, the first bishop of Paris and his companions, the priest Rustique, and a deacon Éleuthère worshipped circa ad 250 before they were decapitated in Montmartre eight years later. Many believed that the first bishop of Paris was buried in this chapel, and in 475 (Sainte) Geneviève built a small oratory over the crypt

Sculpture of Saint Denis.

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Sunbeams engulf the Rayonnant Gothic choir.

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parity with the powerful Reims Cathedral, the historical site of the king’s coronation. As a result of Suger’s influence, royals viewed Saint-Denis as the source of their power and salvation. Taking Saint Denis as their patron, they believed their burial in the basilica near the saint ensured admission to heaven. Their conviction established Saint-Denis as a national shrine, and the saint’s patronage swept across the kingdom. Pilgrims arrived to venerate the stone tombs of Saints Denis, Rustique and Éleuthère , in the circular crypt under the apse, its form inspired by Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Today, remnants of this early structure, cut with narrow windows and traces of painted motifs, are visible in the crypt, to the left and right of the stairwells.

King Dagobert’s tomb, 1250. Dagobert was the first king to be entombed in Saint-Denis.

The royals also sought Saint Denis’ protection and power on the battlefield. Charlemagne’s first banner of Saint-Denis included the golden flames associated with the saint. This oriflamme, a triangle of scarlet taffeta edged in gold fringing, was fixed to a golden lance. It bore the inscription Montjoie Saint Denis!, which roughly translates to ‘Hold the Line’. The protective ensign became an early symbol of Louis VI and national identity.

Safeguarding the basilica’s importance, Suger retained the standard on the altar of the holy martyrs. Until the 15th century, kings heading to battle were required to retrieve the abbey’s standard directly from Saint-Denis.

During his tenure, Suger enriched the treasury with lavish ecclesiastical artifacts, as did the monarchy.

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Through more than 300 colour photographs and behind-the-scenes historical commentary, Churches of Paris reveals some of the world’s most stunning architecture and art – all found in the most historically significant and beautiful churches in Paris, spanning the 12th to the 19th centuries.

Peggy Shannon’s photographs are a glorious record of French cultural heritage and history, showcasing distinguished landmarks as well as lesser-known, seldom-seen wonders that spotlight the culture, traditions and celebrated artisans of their day.

Each church is presented in beautiful colour photographs, with historical narrative, information on its patron saint, and must-see highlights.

The attention to detail, the artistry, craftsmanship, artifacts, stained glass and history showcase the overall majesty and beauty of these treasured monuments in the City of Lights.

ISBN: 978-1-78884-101-6

9 781788 841016

PEGGY SHANNON

Throughout its history, the church has defined the architecture, cultural landscape, and sense of nationalism in Paris. Churches of Paris reveals the evolution of artistic and architectural styles through the notable creations of the past from divisive political upheavals – the French Revolution, the Religious Wars, the Prussian War and the world wars – to the ascent into modernism and the contemporary landscape.

CHURCHES OF PARIS

Churches of Paris unites three enduring passions – religion, art and history.

CHURCHES OF PARIS

56000 £40.00/$60.00

www.accartbooks.com

PEGGY SHANNON