Saint Germain des Prés is typically marked as the oldest church in Paris. Admittedly, dating churches can be hard. Do you mark them based on when construction began? When services were first held? When it was completed? From the first time there was a church on the site? By whatever measure, Saint Germain qualifies as old. A basilica was built in 543. Construction of a new church began in the 11th century, with the nave completed around 1050. The church was essentially completed in 1163, though a chapel to the Virgin Mary was finished in 1245, more or less marking the final completion of the church. It was extensively renovated in the 19th century.
There are, of course, pictures. The exterior and interior of the church.
The holy water font, made from a real clam shell.
Most of the side chapels have been updated over the centuries, but this one is largely in its original form, though it contains, for no readily identifiable reason, a modern statue from the 1960’s.
Statues of St. Genevieve and St. Theodosia.
There’s a carving commemorating the consecration of Francis-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, the first bishop of Quebec. The text reads: “Titular Bishop of Petra, Vicar Apostolic of New France, who received episcopal consecration in this church on December 8, 1658.” He was later made bishop of Quebec in 1674 and was beatified in 2014.
The chapel of the Virgin Mary with a closeup of the visit of the Magi.
And to end, the final resting place of Jan Kazimierz’s (King John II Casimir Vasa of Poland) heart.
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