St. Sulpice - Paris

St Sulpice is the largest church in Paris after Notre Dame. Six architects directed its construction over a period of 134 years. The last of these, the Florentine G. N. Servandoni, erected the imposing facade, though it was later partly modified by Maclaurin and Chalgrin. Today it consists of a double portico surmounted by a loggia with balcony and flanked by two towers. The facades of the transept at the sides of the church have two orders, one above the other, in the Jesuit style.

Interior :

It is impressive and grandiose: 361 feet long, 182 feet wide and 108 feet high (thus larger than, but not so high as St Eustache). Above the entrance is one of the finest organs in France, designed by Chalgrin in 1776 and reconstructed in 1862 by CavaiIIe Coll. The two holy water stoups against the first pillars of the nave are giant shells given to Francois I by the Republic of Venice and donated to the church by Louis XV in 1745. The splendid frescoes in the first chapel on the right, full of Romantic vigor, were painted by Eugene Delacroix between 1849 and 1861. On the right wall, Heliodorus being driven from the Temple, on the left, Jacob struggling with the Angel, and in the vault, St Michael killing the Dragon. There are two statues by Bouchardon, Our Lady of the Sorrows and Christ against the Pillar, on the pillars in the chancel. In the Lady Chapel, decoration of which was supervised by Servandoni, there is a Virgin and Child by Pigalle in the niche above the altar, plus canvases by Van Loo on the walls and a fresco by Lemoyne in the dome.





Hisory of France | France Culture | France Map| Paris| The Eiffel Tower| Notre-Dame| Palais De Justice| Sainte Chapelle| St-Jacques Tower| The Louvre| Carrousel Arch| St-Eustache| Place Vendome| Opera| Madeleine| Place De La Concorde| Champs Elysees| Arc of Triumph| Alexandre III Bridge| Les Invalides| Tomb of Nepoleon| Military Academy| Palais De Chaillot| Palais Bourbon| St-Germain-Des-Pres| St - Sulfice| Luxembourg| Montparnasse| Museum| Pantheon| St-Etienne-Du-Mont| Place Des Vosges| Place De La Bastille| Montmartre| Sacre Cceur

Marseille| Grenoble| Nice| Montpellier| Bordeaux| Lyon| Le havre| Strasbourg| Tours|