We had just finished lunch at a favorite restaurant, Louis Philippe, and were walking toward the Hotel de Ville when we noticed this unusual church. There are quite a few churches in the center of Paris, and we have been to most of them. But not St. Gervais. We decided to have a look at it, and, as with nearly all these old buildings, there was plenty to look at. St. Gervais is a very late Medieval structure, built in the 15th and 16th centuries mostly. But with plenty of updates.
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| The facade was built last and is the first example of French Baroque--the best example is perhaps St. Paul's down the street a bit,* built somewhat later; the rest of St. Gervais is Flamoyant Gothic; note the column capitals, from the bottom up: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian! |
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| We'll see more of the glass later...a mixture of 16th and 21st century |
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| Nave view; note the little stools...no pews or such |
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| More glass...in 1918 a German artillery shell hit the roof, causing it to collapse, killing nearly a hundred people celebrating mass, injuring many more; much of the 16th century glass, by Jean Chastellain, was destroyed; most of the 21st century glass is by Sylvie Gaudin and Claude Courageux |
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| Altar, etc. |
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| Chancel up high |
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| Half the choir, notable for... |
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| Some bawdy misericords...some had to be altered to suit Baroque tastes; here, a couple conserves water, bathing together...thanks, Wikipedia |
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| More glass, notable for the melange |
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| This chapel available...your favorite saint/demi-god here... |
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| Several parts of the church were cordoned-off like this..."possible fall of broken stained glass windows"; we theorize the damage came from the massive thunder- and hail-storm that hit Spain and France May 3rd...some areas received petanque ball-sized hail...in Paris it was mostly golf ball- and egg-sized hail, doing great damage, disruption; personally, I fear for the Chablis region, southeast of Paris; thank goodness we had already shorted our Chablis futures |
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| In the windows above, you can see holes where the glass has fallen |
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| Ditto; interesting factoid department...on Easter Monday, April 13th, 1360, one of the more devastating hailstorms ever recorded hit near Chartres, grapefruit-sized stones, killing more than 1,000 men and 6,000 horses from Edward III's army, which had begun a siege of the cathedral city; Edward took it as a sign from God, and quickly signed an armistice ending the first phase of the Hundred Years' War; other phases went better, for a time; something other blogs don't tell you... |
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| Sort of a Mary hall/chapel |
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| High quality if not famous sculpture laying all around |
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| More contemporary glass, undamaged |
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| If you know your history of organ music, you know of the Couperin family, responsible for several great organists and composers; they did their work at St. Gervais, on this organ |
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| The church even provided them with housing, next door to the church |
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| Because of the odd trapezoidal shape of the block, St. Gervais can hardly been seen for all the buildings surrounding it; except the facade |
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| Voltaire remarked that it was a beautiful church, whose only flaw was that it couldn't be seen... |
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| PS...*St. Paul's, Saturday evening, in the Marais, as we waited for a bus to take us home from the Eurovision broadcast at the Bastille...strictly Corinthian capitals....hmmm... |
