Saint-Etienne-du-Mont

More or less following a straight line between Notre Dame and the Pantheon, you can climb Rue-de-la-Montagne-Sainte-Genviève. The slope of this hill was very early inhabited and had several Roman installations. The street has officially been there since the 13th century, but this was probably the road used to reach a monastery which was established on the top of the hill already by the first French catholic king, Clovis, and where he was buried in 511. One of those pedestrians was the future St. Geneviève (about 420-512), who was the one who converted Clovis and later became the patroness of Paris.

St. Geneviève was buried in a church close to where the present Pantheon stands and the hill was named after her. The Pantheon was originally built to make an even more prestigious site to honour her. (I plan to revert on the Pantheon tomorrow.)

On the print below we can see a church from the 12th century, the original Sainte-Geneviève church. Erratum: ...the abbey church. It was destroyed in 1807, now replaced by the “Lycée Henri IV”, one of the most prestigious high schools in France. Only the “Clovis Bell Tower” from 1180 remains, inside the school premises. The present Saint-Etienne-du-Mont church, to the left on the photo, replacing an older one, was built 1492-1626. This is the church we will visit today. (The statue is of Corneille.)

Especially the interior of the Saint-Etienne-du-Mont church, built to honour St. Stephen, is beautiful in a mixture of late gothic and renaissance styles. Particularly remarkable is perhaps the rood screen (the only one now left in Paris), which divides the choir, where the monks were sitting, from the body of the building, where the parishioners sat (see top picture). I understand that this was the space often occupied by an organ and singers. It’s decorated by a beautiful crucifix.

There is also a very old organ (1633 – of course improved since), a very nice wooden pulpit (1651) and some beautiful stained glass windows.

The relics of Sainte Geneviève (or what may remain of them after the Revolution) have now been brought to this church, as the Pantheon, originally intended for her, has been changed from a church to a mausoleum for the interment of great Frenchmen. The remaining relics are (supposed to be) kept in this splendid copper shrine. Pascal and Racine are buried in the church.

On the way up or down the Rue-de-la-Montagne-Sainte-Genviève you can see where the famous Ecole Polytechnique (“X”) was placed and you have a lot of possibilities of refreshment. The large number cafés and restaurants along the street offer you food and drinks from more or less all over the world (Tibet, Armenia, Japan, Italy, India, Iraq... and France).

Some of these pictures can be found on my photo-blog.