Religious, Spiritual sights in Paris
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Sainte Chapelle
The place to visit on a sunny day! Security checks make it long and snail-slow to get into this gemlike Holy Chapel, the most exquisite of Paris’ Gothic monuments, tucked away within the walls of the Palais de Justice (Law Courts). But once in, be dazzled by Paris’ oldest and finest stained glass – the light on sunny days is extraordinary.
Built in just under three years (compared with nearly 200 for Notre Dame), Ste-Chapelle was consecrated in 1248. The chapel was conceived by Louis IX to house his personal collection of holy relics (including the Holy Crown now kept in the treasury at Notre Dame). The chapel’s exterior can be viewed from across the street from th…
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Chapelle Notre Dame de la Medaille Miraculeuse
Situated across the street from Le Bon Marché department store, tucked away at the end of a courtyard, is this extraordinary chapel where, in 1830, the Virgin Mary spoke to a 24-year-old novice called Catherine Labouré. In a series of three miraculous apparitions that took place in the chapel the young nun was told to have a medal made that would protect and grace those who wore it. The first Miraculous Medals were made in 1832 – the same year a cholera epidemic plagued Paris – and its popularity spread like wild fire as wearers of the medal found themselves miraculously cured or protected from the deadly disease. Devout Roman Catholics around the world still wear the med…
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Église St-Étienne du Mont
The Church of Mount St Stephen, built between 1492 and 1655, contains Paris’ only surviving rood screen (1535), separating the chancel from the nave; the others were removed during the late Renaissance because they prevented the faithful assembled in the nave from seeing the priest celebrate Mass. In the nave’s southeastern corner, a chapel contains the tomb of Ste Geneviève. A highly decorated reliquary nearby contains all that is left of her earthly remains – a finger bone. Ste Geneviève, patroness of Paris, was born at Nanterre in AD 422 and turned away Attila the Hun from Paris in AD 451.
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Église St-Germain l’Auxerrois
Built between the 13th and 16th centuries in a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles and with similar dimensions and ground plans to those of Notre Dame, this once royal parish church stands on a site at the eastern end of the Louvre that has been used for Christian worship since about AD 500. After being mutilated in the 18th century by clergy intent on ‘modernisation’, and damaged during the Revolution, the church was restored by the Gothic Revivalist architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in the mid-19th century. It contains some fine Renaissance stained glass.
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Église de Ste-Marie Madeleine
Constructed in the style of a Greek temple, what is now simply called ‘La Madeleine’ was consecrated in 1842 after almost a century of design changes and construction delays. It is surrounded by 52 Corinthian columns standing 20m tall, and the marble and gilt interior is topped by three sky-lit cupolas. You can hear the massive organ being played at Mass at 11am and 7pm on Sunday.
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Église St-Paul St-Louis
Cross over rue Charlemagne and duck into narrow rue Eginhard. This street doglegs into rue St-Paul. A bit further north, tiny passage St-Paul leads to the side entrance of the Église St-Paul St-Louis at No 7, a Jesuit church completed in 1641 during the Counter-Reformation.
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Église St-Louis en l’Île
The French baroque Église St-Louis en l’Île was built between 1664 and 1726.
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