SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS.
Its Origin and History--Its Library--Its Organ--Saint-Sulpice.
If the Pantheon and the Luxemburg are by their size, their
appurtenances, and their dominant position, the most important buildings
on the left bank of the Seine, the most interesting, by its antiquity,
is the church, with the monastery attached to it, of Saint-Germain-des-Prés;
which, like the cathedral-church of Notre Dame in the city, and the
church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois on the right bank, belong to the
most ancient period of the Merovingian monarchy, to that, in other
words, of Childebert I. and Ultrogothe his wife, who reigned at Paris
from 511 to 538. Childebert, returning from an expedition against the
Visgoths, brought back from Spain as trophies of his victory the tunic
of Saint Vincent, a gold cross and precious stones, together with some
vases which were said to have belonged to King Solomon. By the advice of
Saint Germain, Bishop of Paris, he constructed for the reception of the
holy relics a church and a monastery at the western end of the gardens
belonging to the Palace of the Hot Baths, or Palais des Thermes. On the
very day of Childebert’s death, in 558, Saint Germain consecrated the
new church as “Church of the Holy Cross and of St. Vincent”; and he was
himself buried in it when he died in 596. After the death of the good
bishop the church which he had dedicated to the Holy Cross and to St.
Vincent got to be known under no other name than that of Saint-Germain;
and it now became the burial-place of the kings, queens, and princes of
the Merovingian dynasty.
The abbey remained for a long time an isolated building, which the high
walls, erected around the church and convent in 1239 by Simon, abbé of
Saint-Germain, made into a veritable fortress, which was strengthened in
1368 by Charles V., who, at war with the English, feared a sudden attack
on their part against the suburbs of Paris. A narrow canal was at the
same time dug, which placed the ditches of the fortified abbey in
communication with the Seine. This canal, called at the time “the little
Seine,” was filled up towards the middle of the sixteenth century, when
the line of land thus formed became the Rue des Petits Augustins, now
Rue Bonaparte.
Of this ancient church, three times burned by the Normans and three
times rebuilt, but little now remains. Thirty years ago fragments of the
walls and two of the gates were still to be seen. But the last traces of
the old abbey disappeared when through the Place Saint Germain-des-Prés
the Rue de Rennes was made to run. The church, however, was destined to
survive, in a sadly mutilated condition, the convent and the walls. It
suffered greatly, like so many other sacred buildings, at the time of
the Revolution, when the tombs of the Merovingian kings were broken into
and their contents dispersed. These or portions of them are now to be
found in the abbey of Saint-Denis.
Again and again the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés has been restored:
as in 1644, in 1820, at the time of the Restoration, and finally under
Napoleon III. The choir preserves intact the style of the twelfth
century. Among the tombs may be seen the tomb of King Casimir of Poland,
who, after becoming a monk, was made abbé of Saint-Germain, and died
holding that office in 1672. In a chapel on the opposite side of the
church is the tomb of Olivier and Louis de Castellan, who fell in the
service of Louis XIV., and a little further on the chapel of the
Douglases, many of whom served in the Scottish Guard. Here too are the
remains of Boileau and Descartes. The sacred pictures around the choir
and the nave are the work of Hippolyte Flandrin, the most celebrated
among the pupils of Ingrès, who died before completing his work, and to
whom, in the church he loved to decorate, a monument in white marble has
been erected, surmounted by his bust.
[Illustration: THE TOWER OF SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS.]
It must not be forgotten that during the greater part of its history the
ancient church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés was outside Paris, which
gradually grew towards it and at last surrounded it. On the 2nd of
November, 1589, Henry IV., besieging Paris, went up the convent tower,
accompanied by a single monk, to examine the situation of the town. He
is said to have afterwards gone round the walls of the cloister. But he
did not enter the church, and he withdrew without uttering one single
word.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés was at one time known as the Church of the Three
Steeples. These were destroyed in 1822 under Louis XVIII. as a measure
of economy, since it would otherwise have been necessary to restore
them.
The monastery of Saint-Germain-des-Prés used to contain a library, which
was at that time the largest in Paris, and the only one that was open to
the public. Begun by Father du Breul, author of the “Antiquities of
Paris,” it was augmented through legacies from the physician Noel
Vaillant, the Abbé Baudran, the Abbé Jean d’Estrées, the Abbé Renaudot,
the Chancellor Séguier, the Cardinal Gesvres, the Councillor of State De
Harlay, and others, who, dying, left their libraries to
Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The collection included 100,000 printed volumes,
and 20,000 manuscripts, all of which found their way to the National
Library, where they are now preserved. Close to Saint-Germain-des-Prés,
and between this church and that of Saint-Sulpice, was held the famous
market or fair of Saint-Germain. In the fifteenth century the
Saint-Germain fair used indeed to be held in the garden of the
presbytery of Saint-Sulpice. Antiquaries are not quite agreed as to the
antiquity of Saint-Sulpice; not, that is to say, as to the precise date,
undoubtedly a remote one, of its origin. A tombstone of the tenth
century, found in 1724, when, during the restoration of the church, the
foundations had to be examined, showed that the cemetery, attached to
which there would naturally be a chapel, had existed from the earliest
period. A new chapel or church is supposed to have been built in place
of the more ancient one during the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. A
nave was added to it under Francis I., and three chapels in 1614. In
1643 a council was held under the presidency of the Prince de Condé, at
which it was determined to rebuild the church, which was too small for
the requirements of the neighbourhood and, above all, was falling into
ruins. The first stone of the new church was laid by Anne of Austria in
1646. The building operations were, however, discontinued in 1678; and
it was not until 1721 that--thanks to a lottery for which permission was
given by Louis XV.--enough money was found to enable the architect,
Servandoni, to complete the work. The architecture of Saint-Sulpice has
been severely criticised, especially by Victor Hugo, who compared the
lofty towers (one, by the way, much loftier than the other) to
clarinets. The church of Saint-Sulpice is remarkable, among its various
treasures, for a magnificent balustrade enclosing the choir, and the
statues of the twelve apostles by Bouchardon which surround it. The
pulpit given in 1788 by the Duc de Richelieu is surmounted by an
admirable group sculptured in wood: “Charity surrounded by her
children.” Very curious is the obelisk in white marble, more than eight
metres high, constructed in the most scientific manner by Sully and
Lemonnier, in 1773, to determine the occurrence of the spring equinox
and of Easter Day. The two enormous shells which hold at the entrance to
the church the holy water were gifts from the Republic of Venice to
Francis I.
[Illustration: SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS.]
The chapels of the nave and of the choir, decorated by the most
celebrated artists of this century, present admirable specimens of
religious painting. Eugène Delacroix is represented in the chapel of the
Holy Angels by two mural pictures and a painted ceiling, all instinct
with his fiery genius. The Triumph of Saint Michael, Heliodorus Beaten
with Rods, and Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, are the subjects. The
artists who have painted the various chapels are too numerous to
mention. The organ-loft rests on composite columns of a grandiose
character, the work of Servandoni, and the organ is worthy of the loft
built for its reception. Reconstructed in 1861 by Cavaillé-Coll, this
majestic instrument with its ten octaves possesses 5 complete
key-boards, 118 registers, 20 pedals, and about 7,000 pipes. The organ
of Saint-Sulpice is said to be the largest in Europe, and on Sundays and
holidays the congregation is never without a certain number of
_dilettanti_ who have come to hear the gigantic instrument speak
beneath the eloquent fingers of M. Widor, whose duties as organist have
not prevented him from writing the music of a ballet, “La Korrigane,”
for the Opéra, and of a lyric work, “Maître Ambros,” for the Opéra
Comique. Widor, the organist of Saint-Sulpice, composing ballet-music
reminds one of the still more violent relief sought by Hervé, who passed
from the organ-loft to the stage of the Folies Dramatiques with his
burlesque operettas of “L’Œil Crevé” and “Le Petit Faust.” The hero
of M. Hervé’s operatic vaudeville “Nitouche” is perhaps a typical
personage in the musical world of Paris. He also is an organist by
profession, a composer of light opera by aspiration; and he gets into
sad trouble by teaching frivolous airs to the pupils of the convent
school where he is employed to play psalms and hymns.
Strangely enough, by what hazard can scarcely be said, in the organ-loft
of Saint-Sulpice is to be found the harpsichord of Marie Antoinette.
What a contrast between the delicate sounds of this feeble instrument
and the thunder of its colossal neighbour!
[Illustration: THE SIDE ENTRANCE TO SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS.]
The church of Saint-Sulpice, renamed in 1793, at the height of the
Revolution, Temple of Victory, was the scene on the 9th of November,
1799, of a banquet, at which General Bonaparte presided. In 1802 it was
restored to public worship. The existing church rests on an immense
crypt, in which the architects have respected the pillars of the
original church. In this subterranean church, which is adorned with
statues of Saint Paul and Saint John the Evangelist by Pradier, the
catechism is taught and conferences are held. The plan of Servandoni
comprised a space in front of the church, enclosed by symmetrical
façades, the model of which may be seen in the south-east corner of the
square, between the Rue des Canettes and the Rue Saint-Sulpice. This
part of the architect’s project was, however, abandoned.
Completed in virtue of a decree of the year 1811, and planted with trees
in 1838, the Place Saint-Sulpice has been adorned since 1847 with a
monumental fountain constructed by Visconti in place of an older one
removed to the Marché Saint-Germain. The four statues which form part of
the design, in the midst of three concentric basins, represent Bossuet,
Fénélon, Massillon, and Fléchier. Beneath the eyes of the four preachers
in bronze a flower-market is held twice a week.
Quitting the Place Saint-Sulpice by the Rue Bonaparte, passing before
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and crossing the Rue Jacob, we reach the section
of the Rue Bonaparte which was originally called Rue des Petits
Augustins, and which stands on what, until it was filled up, was the bed
of the Little Seine.