About the Church of Saint Sulpice:
One of the largest churches in Paris, Saint Sulpice was built in the 17th century over the foundations of a much early church dating from around the 12th century. The facade is impressive and you will recognize it by the two towers in front.
One of its greatest attractions is the massive pipe organ…7,000 pipes in all…which took three men working the bellows just to get the music going. Of course that was in a day before electricity. Today you can still enjoy the music during Mass, and organ enthusiasts often climb the stairway up to the loft to view the organ itself. Their is normally an organ concert after Sunday Mass as well. Here is an interesting description of the organ concert from Rick Steves Travel.
In the Chapelle des Saints-Anges you can view the three paintings of Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix, dating from 1861. There are two enormous wall paintings, each more than 23 feet high, and one nearly as large on the ceiling at more than 16 feet across.
The church doors were set on fire by an arsonist in 2019, but fortunately damage was contained to the doors and was not signifcant. It was one of many attacks on Catholic churches in Paris in 2019.
An interesting note: the church (exterior shot is real, the interior shot is digitally re-created) is briefly shown in the movie “The DaVinci Code” …an interesting thriller, so long as you are not interested in actual facts. Most things in the movie are completely wrong. Here is a list of some of the erroneous citations in that movie.
Finding Saint Sulpice Church in Paris:
Located in the heart of the 6th arrondissement, in the Saint-Germain-des-Près district. There is a Saint-Sulpice Metro station or the following buses stop there as well: 58, 63, 70, 86, 87, 89, 95
Address: Place Saint-Sulpice, 75006 Paris
Tel: +33 (0) 1 42 34 59 98
email: visites@pssparis.net
Click here for the official website of Saint Sulpice Church.
