The Church of Saint-Sulpice () is a Catholic church in Paris, France, on the east side of Place Saint-Sulpice, in the 6th arrondissement. It is the second largest church in the city. It is dedicated to Sulpitius the Pious. Construction of the present building, the second on the site, began in 1646. During the 18th century, an elaborate gnomon, the Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice, was constructed in the church. Saint-Sulpice is also known for its Great Organ, one of the most significant organs in the world, and its titular organists, including Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré.
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. Anne of Austria laid the first stone.Kauffmann 2003, p.156.
Construction began in 1646 to designs which had been created in 1636 by Christophe Gamard, but the Fronde interfered, and only the Lady Chapel had been built by 1660, when Daniel Gittard provided a new general design for most of the church.In 1655 Louis Le Vau submitted a design, essentially an augmentation of Gamard's project, but Gittard's proposal, in its turn largely based on the plans of Gamard and Le Vau, was preferred (Himmelfarb 1998; Ayers 2004, p. 126). Gittard completed the sanctuary, ambulatory, apsidal chapels, transept, and north portal (1670–1678), after which construction was halted for lack of funds.Himmelfarb 1998; Ayers 2004, pp. 126–127.
Gilles-Marie Oppenord and Giovanni Servandoni, adhering closely to Gittard's designs, supervised further construction (mainly the nave and side-chapels, 1719–1745). The decoration was executed by the brothers Sébastien-Antoine Slodtz (1695–1742) and Paul-Ambroise Slodtz (1702–1758).Terrien 2004, p. 17.
In 1723–1724 Oppenord created the north and south portals of the transept with an unusual interior design for the ends: concave walls with nearly engaged Corinthian columns instead of the pilasters found in other parts of the church.
He also built a bell tower on top of the transept crossing (c. 1725), which threatened to collapse the structure because of its weight and had to be removed. This miscalculation may account for the fact that Oppenord was then relieved of his duties as an architect and restricted to designing decoration.
West façade In 1732 a competition for the design of the west façade was won by Servandoni, who was inspired by the entrance elevation of Christopher Wren's Saint Paul's Cathedral in London.Ayers 2004, pp. 126–127. The 1739 Turgot map of Paris shows the church without Oppenord's crossing bell tower, but with Servandoni's pedimented façades mostly complete, still lacking, however, its two towers.
Unfinished at the time of his death in 1766, the work was continued by others, primarily the obscure Oudot de Maclaurin, who erected twin towers to Servandoni's design. Servandoni's pupil Jean-François Chalgrin rebuilt the north tower (1777–1780), making it taller and modifying Servandoni's baroque design to one that was more neoclassical, but the French Revolution intervened, and the south tower was never replaced.The south tower is 5 meters shorter, and the stonework is unfinished (Terrien 2004, p. 21). See also Ayers 2004, pp. 126–127. Chalgrin also designed the decoration of the chapels under the towers.Terrien 2004, pp. 21, 31.
The principal façade now exists in somewhat altered form. Servandoni's pediment, criticized as classically incorrect because its width was based on the entire front rather than the size of the order on which it rested, was removed after it was struck by lightning in 1770 and replaced with a balustrade. This change and the absence of the belvederes on the towers bring the design closer in spirit to that of the severely classical east front of the Louvre. A double colonnade, Ionic order over Roman Doric with loggias behind them, unifies the bases of the corner towers with the façade; this fully classicising statement was made at the height of the rococo.A contrast in styles is presented by Juste-Aurèle Meissonier's fully rococo project for the Saint-Sulpice façade made some six years earlier, a "rococo reminiscence of North Italian baroque" illustrated by W. Knight Sturges, "Jacques-François Blondel" The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 11.1 (March 1952:16–19) p17 fig. 2b.
Its revolutionary character was recognised by the architect and teacher Jacques-François Blondel, who illustrated the elevation of the façade in his Architecture françoise of 1752,Blondel's plate shows the façade as planned at the time, with as yet unexecuted features, such as the balustrade in place of the pediment and towers in Servandoni's design (see here ). He mentions in his text, but declined to illustrate, a projected (unexecuted) third Corinthian order on the rear wall separating the church from the porch. 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."Blondel 1752, Architecture françoise, tome 2, livre 3, p. 40: "Ce monument qui tient tout son mérite de l'Architecture, & dont la grandeur annonce à nos Architectes François une route presque nouvelle...." Quoted in Sturges 1952:17. 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 two mismatched towers. The Neoclassical façade of Saint-Sulpice, with its double colonnade and restrained ornamentation, established a model for Parisian church architecture in the 18th century.
Another point of interest dating from the time of the Revolution, when Christianity was suppressed and Saint-Sulpice became a place of worship for the Robespierrean Cult of the Supreme Being, is a printed sign over the center door of the main entrance. One can still barely make out the printed words Le Peuple Français Reconnoit L'Etre Suprême Et L'Immortalité de L'Âme ("The French people recognize the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul").Terrien 2004, p. 33.
Interior
Inside the church to either side of the entrance are the two halves of an enormous shell (Tridacna gigas) given to King Francis I by the Venetian Republic. They function as holy water fonts and rest on rock-like bases sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle.Terrien 2004, p. 27.
Pigalle also designed the large white marble statue of Mary in the Lady Chapel at the far end of the church. The stucco decoration surrounding it is by Louis-Philippe Mouchy. Pigalle's work replaced a solid-silver statue by Edmé Bouchardon, which vanished at the time of the Revolution. It was cast from silverware donated by parishioners and was known as "Our Lady of the Old Tableware".Terrien 2004, p. 22.
The baroque interior of the Lady Chapel (rebuilt by Servandoni in 1729) was designed by Charles de Wailly in 1774, after the chapel was badly damaged by a fire which destroyed the nearby Foire Saint-Germain in 1762. The dome, lit by natural light from hidden windows devised by de Wailly, contains a fresco by François Lemoyne depicting the Assumption of Mary, which dates from 1734, although it has been restored several times since then.Terrien 2004, pp. 21–22. De Wailly also designed the pulpit (in the nave), completed in 1788.Terrien 2004, p. 28. The oak canopy broadcasts sound very well and it was from here that the parish priest of Saint-Sulpice declared his refusal to accept the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Revolutionary orators used it later also.Kauffmann 2003, p. 37. One of its permanent exhibits is MARIA by Guido Dettoni della Grazia.
During the Directory, Saint-Sulpice was used as a Temple of Victory. Redecorations to the interior, to repair extensive damage still remaining from the Revolution, were begun after the Concordat of 1801.Terrien 2004, p. 35, who refers to the agreement with the variant name "Concordat of 1802". Eugène Delacroix added murals (1855–1861) that adorn the walls of the Chapel of the Holy Angels (first side-chapel on the right). The most famous of these are Jacob Wrestling with the Angel and Heliodorus Driven from the Temple.Terrien 2004, p. 38; Jack J. Spector, The Murals of Eugène Delacroix at Saint-Sulpice (New York: College Art Association) 1967. A third, on the ceiling, is Saint Michael Vanquishing the Demon.
Notable events 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 (1822).
On 6 June 1791, Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, was buried in the church of Saint-Sulpice, after having died on 2 June in his residence, the Hôtel de Besenval.Gabrielle Claerr Stamm: De Soleure à Paris : La saga de la famille de Besenval, seigneurs de Brunstatt, Riedisheim et Didenheim, Société d’Histoire du Sundgau, 2000, p. 151
During the Paris Commune (1871) one faction, called the Club de la Victoire, chose Saint-Sulpice as its headquarters and Louise Michel spoke from the pulpit.
Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon and Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, granddaughters of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan are buried in the church. Louise de Lorraine, Duchess of Bouillon and wife of Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne, was buried here in 1788.
On Sunday 17 March 2019, the church caught on fire. Spectators at an organ concert alerted firefighters. The fire badly damaged the doors, a stained-glass window, and a bas-relief; and a staircase near the doorway went up in flames. Police later confirmed the fire was an arson attack. The City of Paris is required to pay for the building's repair and restoration.
A funeral mass was held in the church for Jacques Chirac, former President of France, on 30 September 2019.
Organs
The church has a long-standing tradition of talented organists that dates back to the eighteenth century (see below). In 1862, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll rebuilt the existing organ built by François-Henri Clicquot.Saint-Sulpice, in series Nefs et Clocher, Éditions du Cerf, Paris The case was designed by Jean-François Chalgrin and built by Monsieur Joudot.St. Sulpice organ case designed by Chalgrin. Retrieved on 2011-11-28
Though using many materials from Clicquot's French Classical organ, it is considered to be Cavaillé-Coll's magnum opus, featuring 102 speaking stops on five manuals and pedal, and is perhaps the most impressive instrument of the romantic French symphonic-organ era.
Its titular organists have been renowned, starting with Nicolas Séjan in the 18th century, and continuing with Charles-Marie Widor (organist 1870–1933), Marcel Dupré (organist 1934–1971), and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald (organist 1973–1982), organists and composers of high international reputation. For over a century (1870–1971), Saint-Sulpice employed only two organists, and much credit is due to these musicians for preserving the instrument in its original state. Since 2023 Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin and Karol Mossakowski have served as titular organists, having succeeded Daniel Roth (titular organist from 1985 to 2023), who continues to serve as emeritus titular organist.The Diapason, "Daniel Roth named Titulaire Émérite, St. Sulpice, Paris", 17 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2024.