Churches in Paris: Église Saint-Sulpice de Paris

The Église Saint-Sulpice de Paris is a large church located in the 6th arrondissement.  The church is dedicated to Saint Sulpitius the Pious, a 7th century bishop of Bourges in central France.  

Construction of the existing church began in 1648 and lasted until 1870.  The church is large.  It is almost as large as Notre-Dame de Paris, making it the second largest church in Paris.  The church's towers are a prominent feature of the Paris skyline.

Because the church was built over 220 years, different architects were employed and they used different architectural styles.  The church has Baroque, Rococo and neoclassical elements. 

The church is especially known for its Great Organ and its several talented organists over the past 150 years. 

The church hosted the baptisms of Baudelaire and the Marquis de Sade, as a well as Victor Hugo's marriage.  Recently, the funeral mass for deceased President Chirac was held there.  (It would have been held at Notre Dame, but that was impossible after the fire.)

Let's take a photographic tour of  Église Saint-Sulpice.  Below are two views of the facade--one at midday and another in late afternoon.

The four-sided monumental fountain pictured above was added in 1848 and is known as the Fontaine Saint-Sulpice, or the La Fontaine des quatre points cardinaux ("the Fountain of the 4 Cardinal Directions").

Up close, the facade makes the building feel more like an ancient temple or a governmental building than a church.  

The existing church replaced an earlier, much smaller Romanesque church from the 1200's.  You can see the relative sizes of the earlier and existing churches in the diagram below.  

The interior of the church is cavernous.

One of the best features inside the church was the Chapel of the Virgin, with a recessed statue of Mary that appeared to float in a cloud.   

The church includes several tombs, including the one pictured below.  Jean-Claude thought the sculptures depicting the triumph over death were especially good.  

During Year 4, we visited Saint-Sulpice several times.  Once, we attended a concert there given by the choir from the American Cathedral.  The choir's performance was wonderful, the acoustics were excellent and the Great Organ filled the church with beautiful music.    

The Great Organ and the organist Andrew Dewar

Thanks for visiting Église Saint-Sulpice de Paris with us.