Paris: Grant Allen's Historical GuidesAllen, Grant
History
Paris: Grant Allen's Historical Guides
Allen, Grant
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Guidebooks
Later still, the mediæval church of Ste. Geneviève, hard by,
having fallen into decay in the middle of the eighteenth
century, Louis XV determined to replace it by a sumptuous domed
edifice in the style of the period. This building, designed by
Soufflot, was not completed till the Revolution, when it was
immediately secularised as the =Panthéon=, under circumstances
to be mentioned later. The remains of Ste. Geneviève, which had
lain temporarily meanwhile in a sumptuous chapel at St.
Étienne-du-Mont (the subsidiary church of the monastery) were
then taken out by the Revolutionists; the mediæval shrine, or
reliquary (which replaced St. Éloy’s), was ruthlessly broken up;
and the body of the patroness and preserver of Paris was
publicly burned in the Place de Grève. This, however, strange to
say, was not quite the end of Ste. Geneviève. A few of her
relics were said to have been preserved: some bones, together
with a lock of the holy shepherdess’s hair, were afterwards
recovered, and replaced in the sarcophagus they had once
occupied. Such at least is the official story; and these relics,
now once more enclosed in a costly shrine, still attract
thousands of votaries to the chapel of the saint in St.
Étienne-du-Mont.
The Panthéon, standing in front of the original church, is now a
secular burial-place for the great men of France. The remains of
Ste. Geneviève still repose at St. Étienne. Thus it is
impossible to dissociate the two buildings, which should be
visited together; and thus too it happens that the patroness of
Paris has now no church in her own city. Local saints are always
the most important; this hill and Montmartre are still the
holiest places in Paris.]
* * * * *
Proceed, as far as the garden of the Thermes, as on the excursion to
Cluny. Then continue straight up the Boulevard St. Michel. The large
edifice visible on the R of the Rue des Écoles to your L, is the new
building of the Sorbonne, or University. Further up, at the Place du
Sorbonne, the domed church of the same name stands before you. It is the
University church, and is noticeable as the earliest true dome erected
in Paris. The next corner shows one, R, the Luxembourg garden, and L,
the Rue Soufflot, leading up to the =Panthéon=.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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