General Information

The second largest Parisian church, St-Sulpice is an unorthodox neoclassical masterpiece. It is famous for the Great Organ, reputed to produce the most beautiful sound in the world. Another object of interest is the gnomon, an astronomical measurement device built in the 18th century. The church was further publicised by ‘Da Vinci Code’ by Brown.

History: Highlights

The current Saint-Sulpice is the second church on the site and was built between 1646 and 1732, but some of the work continued till the 1780s. During the French Revolution, Saint-Sulpice was renamed the Temple of Victory and suffered some damage, but later it returned to its former appellation and was renovated.

History: Explained

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, who had established the Society of St-Sulpice, a clerical congregation, and a seminary attached to the church. The work continued for about 140 years: the church was mostly completed in 1732. The chancel is the work of Christophe Gamard, Louis Le Vau and Daniel Gittard, but the work was completed in 1714-1745 by a student of François Mansart, Gilles-Marie Oppenord.
During the French Revolution, the church was renamed the Temple of Victory and badly damaged. Also a printed sign was put over the centre door of the main entrance. It says (in French), ‘The people of France recognize the supreme being and the immortality of the soul,’ and can still be read. It remains unknown who and why put the sign there, or, for that matter, what happened to the frieze that the sign must have replaced. In the 19th century the church was renovated.
Interestingly, Marquis de Sade and Charles Baudelaire were baptized there. St-Sulpice saw the marriage of Victor Hugo to Adèle Foucher. Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon and Louise Élisabeth d’Orléans, granddaughters of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, are buried in the church.

Architecture: Highlights

Impressive both in size and design, St-Sulpice is considered a revolutionary achievement of its time. Its neoclassical lines clash with its mismatched towers, but the overall effect is one of elegance and harmony.

Architecture: Explained

113 metres long, 58 metres wide and 34 metres tall, St-Sulpice is only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame and thus it is the second largest church in the city. The unorthodox façade was designed by Giovanni Niccolo Servadonni in 1732. The façade and the towers are harmonised by Ionic and Doric orders. This fully classicising structure was erected at the height of the Rococo. It has been modified by Jean Chalgrin and others. 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 mismatched two towers: one, to the neoclassical design of Jean François Chalgrin, was added shortly before the French Revolution, but its matching tower was never begun, and the former tower remains.
On either side of the front door are two enormous shells given to King Francis I by the Venetian Republic. The two shells rest on rock-like bases, sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle.
The 19th-century redecorations to the interior, after some Revolutionary damage when St-Sulpice became the Temple of Victory, include the murals of Eugène Delacroix that adorn the walls of the side chapel. The most famous of these are Jacob Wrestling with the Angel and Heliodorus Driven from the Temple.

Gnomon of St-Sulpice: Highlights

The Gnomon of St-Sulpice is an astronomical measurement device, designed to cast a shadow on the ground in order to determine the position of the sun in the sky. Built in the 18th century (the obelisk is dated 1743), it helped to determine the time of the equinoxes.

Gnomon of St-Sulpice: Explained

The gnomon is built around a meridian, a line which is strictly oriented along the North-South axis, represented by a brass line set in a strip of white marble on the floor of the church. The sunlight passes through a small round opening in the southern stained-glass window of the transept, 25m high, forming a small light disk on the floor; this disk will cross the meridian each time the sun reaches its zenith at true noon. The sun will cross different parts of the meridian depending the time of year, as the sun will be higher or lower in the sky at noon. The position of the sun at an equinox is marked with a gold disk and it is located right in front of the altar. At one end of the meridian there is a square marble plaque, which corresponds to the highest position of the sun at midday (64°35′ at the location of St-Sulpice) during the Summer solstice on 21 June. At the other end stands an obelisk, which is lit near its top when the sun is at its lowest at midday (17°42′ at the location of St-Sulpice). If not for the obelisk, the sun disk would hit an area about 20 meters beyond the wall of the church.

The Great Organ: Highlights

In 1862 Aristide Cavaillé-Coll reconstructed and improved the existing organ built by François-Henri Clicquot. It features 102 speaking stops and is perhaps the most impressive instrument of its era. Moreover, the church has a long-standing tradition of talented organists, dating back to the 18th century. On Sundays St-Sulpice holds organ recitals.