St Sulpice

By parisian on 20/08/2009 in Attractions

Eglise St Sulpice

Eglise St Sulpice is a Roman Catholic church in Paris, France, on the east side of the Place Saint Sulpice, in the Luxembourg Quarter of the 6th arrondissement. At 113 metres long, 58 metres in width and 34 metres tall, it is only slightly smaller than Notre Dame and thus the second largest church in the city. It is dedicated to Sulpitius the Pious. During the 18th century, an elaborate gnomon, the Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice, was constructed in the church.

History

The present church is the second building on the site, erected over a Romanesque church originally constructed during the 13th century. Additions were made over the centuries, up to 1631. The new building was founded in 1646 by parish priest Jean-Jacques Olier (1608–1657) who had established the Society of Saint-Sulpice, a clerical congregation, and a seminary attached to the church.

Work continued for about 140 years: The church was mostly completed in 1732; the chancel is the work of Christophe Gamard, Louis Le Vau and Daniel Gittard, but the work was completed by Gilles-Marie Oppenord, a student of François Mansart, in 1714-1745.

The façade is an unorthodox essay of 1732 by Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni in which a double Ionic colonnade, Ionic order over Roman Doric with loggias behind them unify the bases of the corner towers with the façade; this fully classicising statement was made at the height of the Rococo^[1] Its revolutionary character was recognised two decades later by the architect and teacher Jacques-François Blondel, who illustrated the elevation of the façade in his Architecture française, remarking, “The entire merit of this building lies in the architecture itself… and its greatness of scale, which opens a practically new road for our French architects.” It has been modified by Jean Chalgrin and others. Large arched windows fill the vast interior with natural light. The result is a simple two-storey west front with three tiers of elegant columns. The overall harmony of the building is, some say, only marred by the mismatched two towers; one, to the neoclassical design of Jean François Chalgrin, was added shortly before the French Revolution but its matching tower was never begun, and the former tower remains.

At either side of the front door are two enormous shells given to King Francis I by the Venetian Republic. The two shells rest on rock-like bases, sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle.

Nineteenth-century redecorations to the interior, after some Revolutionary damage when Saint-Sulpice became a Temple of Victory, include the murals of Eugène Delacroix, that adorn the walls of the side chapel. The most famous of these are Jacob Wrestling with the Angel and Heliodorus Driven from the Temple. Jules Massenet set an act of Manon at fashionable Saint-Sulpice.

Another point of interest dating from the time of Saint-Sulpice serving as a Temple of Victory is a printed sign over the center door of the main entrance. One can still barely make out the printed words ‘’Le Peuple Francais Reconnoit L’Etre Suprême Et L’Immortalité de L’Âme’’, The people of France recognize the supreme being and the immortality of the soul. Further questions of interest are the fate of the frieze that this must have replaced, the persons responsible for placing this manifesto and the reasons that it is has been left in place.

The Marquis de Sade and Charles Baudelaire were baptized in Saint-Sulpice (1740 and 1821, respectively), and the church also saw the marriage of Victor Hugo to Adèle Foucher (1794). Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon and Louise Élisabeth d’Orléans, grand daughters of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan are buried in the church. Louise de Lorraine, duchesse de Bouillon was buried here in 1788, wife of Charles Godefroy de La Tour d’Auvergne. Text Source: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

St Sulpice is located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. So, you may want to see;