Paris: Grant Allen's Historical GuidesAllen, Grant
History
Paris: Grant Allen's Historical Guides
Allen, Grant
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Guidebooks
Now walk up the Right Aisle. The first chapel is the Baptistery,
containing the font and a modern statue of the boy Baptist. Third
chapel, St. Antony of Padua. The fourth chapel contains a curious Holy
Sepulchre, with quaint life-size terra-cotta figures of the 16th
century. Fifth chapel, a gilt _châsse_. Notice the transepts, reduced to
short arms, scarcely, if at all, projecting beyond the chapels. From
this point examine the exquisite Renaissance tracery of the rood-screen
and staircases. Then pass under the fine Renaissance door, with lovely
decorative work, into the =ambulatory=. The Choir is in large part
Gothic, with late flamboyant tracery. The apparent triforium is
continued round the ambulatory. The splendid gilded shrine in the second
choir-chapel contains the =remains of Ste. Geneviève=, or what is left
of them. Candles burn perpetually around it. Hundreds of votaries here
pay their devotions daily to the Patroness of Paris. The shrine,
containing what is alleged to be the original sarcophagus of the Saint
(more probably of the 13th century) stands under a richly-gilt Gothic
tabernacle, adorned with figures legibly named on their pedestals. The
stained-glass window behind it has a representation of a processional
function with the body of the Saint, showing this church, together with
a view of the original church of Ste. Geneviève, the remaining tower,
and adjacent houses, historically most interesting. The window beyond
the shrine also contains the history of Ste. Geneviève—her childhood,
first communion, miracles, distribution of bread during the siege of
Paris, conversion of Clovis, death, etc. Indeed the long sojourn of the
body of Ste. Geneviève in this church has almost overshadowed its
dedication to St. Stephen, several memorials of whom may, however, be
recognised by the attentive visitor—amongst them, a picture of his
martyrdom (by Abel de Pujol) near the entrance to the choir. The
Protomartyr also stands, with his deacon’s robe and palm, in a niche
near the door of the sacristy, where L and R are frescoes of his
Disputation with the Doctors, and his Martyrdom. The chapel immediately
behind the high altar is, as usual, the Lady Chapel. The next contains a
good modern window of the Marriage of the Virgin. Examine in detail all
the windows; one of the mystic wine-press is very interesting. Votive
offerings of the city of Paris to Ste. Geneviève also exist in the
ambulatory. Curious frescoes of the martyrdom of the 10,000 Christians
on Mount Ararat on the N side. The best view of the choir is obtained
from the N side of the ambulatory, opposite the shrine of Ste.
Geneviève. In the north aisle notice St. Louis with the Crown of Thorns.
Stand again in the centre of the nave, near the entrance, and observe
the curious inclination of the choir and high altar to one side—here
particularly noticeable, and said in every case to represent the droop
of the Redeemer’s head on the cross.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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