This is an important beautiful church of my eternal Paris yet finally glad to tell you was in it and got the pictures to show in my blog! This was a while back and found the pictures in my cd rom vault. As said, these are monument of architecture and history that tells the story better than anything ,and I love to visit them. And not enough, need to be back, eventually. Anyway, I will tell you more of this wonderful church in a nice area indeed, Therefore, here is my take on the Church Saint Sulpice of Paris, part II !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
The Church Saint Sulpice is in the Odéon neighborhood of the 6éme district of Paris. It is located in place Saint-Sulpice with an official address of 2 rue Palatine. It is dedicated to Sulpice the pious, Archbishop of Bourges in the 7C. The present church took the place of a small sanctuary dedicated to Saint-Sulpice-des-Champs, which would go up in the 12C. Rebuilt, then enlarged in the 14C and 16C, it eventually proves to be insufficient for the population of the parish, The first stone was laid by the Regent Anne of Austria in February 1646. The plans were to build the largest church in Paris , indeed 119 meters long and 57 meters wide (it is actually the 2nd biggest). The two towers of the church are of different architecture as the North Tower was completed in 1788, while the French revolution prevented it from doing the same for the South Tower. It waited to be finished for more than 2 centuries! The old church will be totally encompassed , see it at the level of the present choir, the Cross of the transept and two bays of the nave. It is a must to visit me think; its architecture is the epitome of Classicism, the decorations, the murals and frescoes of the chapels deserve careful look. You see the giant clams and its Virgin and Children, reliefs and sumptuous mausoleum offer the Church artistic masterpieces in Paris. Forty years will pass. It is the energetic priest Jean-Baptiste Languet de Cergy who will restart the construction in 1719 thanks to a lottery.
The Chapel of the Virgin,is the first element that was built, The Chapel of the Virgin is one of the oldest of the church. In 1774, enriched with an open dome, very original, responsible for plunging the assumption into a sort of celestial light. You can also see two paintings by Carl Van Loo , about the life of the Virgin, and the Angels of the Slodtz brothers adorned with garlands. Finally, the most majestic element is undoubtedly the white marble statue, the Madonna with the Child, by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle in a niche created by Louis-Philippe Mouchy, his nephew and pupil. In this chapel, the Classical and the Baroque come together in a happy way, but in general, the darkness prevents to admire it fully.
There is a wonderful Meridian in this church for all a must to see, The meridian of the Church Saint-Sulpice is an astronomical measurement apparatus. This meridian, traditionally called “gnomon”, is a device designed here to project the image of the sun on the ground, in order to determine fundamental elements of its annual movement in the sky. The meridian is built around a line strictly oriented along the North-South axis, represented by a brass rule inserted in a strip of white marble embedded in the ground of the church.
The sunlight passes through a small opening of a circular section arranged in the southern stained glass window, at a height of 25 meters, forming on the ground a small stain of elliptical light which crosses the meridian line each time the sun culminates True noon. The sun crosses different parts of the meridian depending on the time of the year, depending on its height in the sky at noon. On the meridian line is a “gold” disc which locates the position of the sun with equinoxes. It is located just in front of the altar. At the southern end of the meridian line is a square marble plate, which corresponds to the position of the sun at the highest at noon (64 ° 35 ′ on the site of Saint-Sulpice), the day of the solstice of summer, around June 21. At the other end of the meridian line is an obelisk, which is lit near its summit when the sun is at the lowest at noon (17 ° 42 ′ on the site of Saint-Sulpice), the day of the solstice of ‘winter. If the obelisk did not exist, the solar image would strike the horizontal soil in an area located about 20 meters beyond the wall of the church. The meridian was built on the initiative of Jean-Baptiste Langue de Gergy, parish priest of Saint-Sulpice from 1714 to 1748.
The organ of Saint-Sulpice has an international reputation. Built by Cliquot in 1781 (with 5 keyboards and 64 games), it was already looked at at the time as one of the best in the kingdom. Aristide Cavaillon-Coll rebuilt it from 1857 to 1861. He reused many of the elements created by Cliquot to link classical tradition with romance. The 20C has respected this illustrious instrument; it has retained all its original characteristics. And many wonderful concerts are played here indeed today.
The official Church of Saint Sulpice: https://www.paroissesaintsulpice.paris/visiter-et-decouvrir/
The Paris tourist office on the Church Saint Sulpice: https://parisjetaime.com/eng/culture/eglise-saint-sulpice-p1572
There you go folks, an wonderful monument of eternal Paris, the most beautiful city in the world and monuments like this definitively makes it so. Again, hope you enjoy this post on the Church Saint Sulpice of Paris, part II as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 