Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre

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Sacré-Cœur Basilica
Sacré-Cœur basilica at night
Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur from the Arc de Triomphe

The Basilica minor Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre [ ˌsakʀeˈkœʀ ] (Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Montmartre) is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage church built in the neo-Byzantine style on Montmartre in the 18th arrondissement of Paris , which is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus .

architecture

Roof plan; the darker the background color, the higher the building part and roof

The construction of the historicist church was started in 1875 by the architect Paul Abadie , who had prevailed against 78 competitors in a competition, and was completed in 1914. The church consecration took place after the end of the First World War in 1919. Paul Abadie's design was clearly inspired by the architecture of Roman-Byzantine churches such as Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and St. Mark's Basilica in Venice as well as the Périgueux Cathedral , which he had restored. Sacré-Cœur was later to become a model for other sacred buildings of the 20th century, for example the basilica Sainte-Thérèse in Lisieux . Abadie died in 1884 when construction had only just begun. He was followed by six architects in the construction management until completion. Architecturally, the church is not a basilica , but a cross-domed church .

Sacré-Cœur was put together from Château-Landon stones, a frost-resistant travertine from the town of the same name in what is now the Seine-et-Marne department , which gives off its calcite through the weather and thus takes on a chalk-like white over time. The foundations reach 33 meters into the ground to prevent the church from sinking into the loamy subsoil. The church itself measures 85 by 35 meters and is 83 meters high. The large dome alone is 55 meters high, from it you can see up to 40 km in good weather conditions.

The iconography of the basilica is national: the three-arched main portal is supported by equestrian statues of the national saints Joan of Arc and Louis IX. flanked by Hippolyte Lefèbvre .

In the apse of the basilica is the mosaic of the Sacred Heart by Luc-Olivier Merson (completed in 1922), which is one of the largest mosaics in the world at 475 m² . It shows Jesus with a flaming heart surrounded by thorns and arms outstretched.

For a long time, the architecture of Sacré-Cœur was rated negatively in specialist and travel literature. In a picture book from 1974 it says:

"When you approach and reach the forecourt, when you enter the interior, you cannot put up with the accumulation of meaningless structures, the glorious, disproportionate domes, the indestructible ugliness of the sculptures and mosaics and even less with the coldness of the pale material, which will never take on a patina, this robust stone from Château-Landon which, contrary to expectations, becomes whiter with increasing age. "

- Fleury, Erlande-Brandenburg and Babelon 1974

history

The 5 m high Sacred Heart statue by Pierre Seguin
Interior view of the Sacré-Cœur basilica with the large mosaic in the apse
Rosette with the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The place had previously been selected by the Archbishop of Paris and later Cardinal Joseph Hippolyte Guibert OMI . The foundation stone was laid in 1875, the same year the Constitution of the Third Republic came into force. This symbolic content was entirely intentional. The state supported the project financially after the National Assembly declared the new building a national project. The church should also serve to commemorate the French victims of the Franco-Prussian War and the “repentance of the crimes of the Communards ”. It is also a reaction to the conquest of Rome , the holy city, by the troops of Viktor Emanuel II and the "captivity" of Pope Pius IX. - here the motive of penance for an alleged spiritual depravity plays a role, in which the dignitaries who initiated the building saw the cause of these two events.

The 40 million francs that the building ultimately devoured was partly raised through donations (the names of the donors were chiseled into the stone of the new building), and in 1914 the Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre was finally completed. The consecration was scheduled for October 17, 1914, it was postponed because of the First World War and only took place after the end of the First World War on October 16, 1919 by Léon-Adolphe Cardinal Amette . She received through Pope Benedict XV. also the title of a minor basilica .

The church is consecrated to the heart of Jesus. Pope Pius IX introduced the Sacred Heart Festival in the Roman general calendar in 1856 and thereby strengthened the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Pope Leo XIII. consecrated the whole world to the heart of Jesus in his encyclical Annum sacrum of 1899. Since 1885 (a time when the church was only partially completed) there has been a monstrance with the Holy of Holies above the high altar .

tourism

Today, the Sacré-Cœur is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Paris. Due to the elevated location, the stairs in front of the building are particularly popular with those who want to enjoy the view over the city. From there you can also see the nearby church of St-Vincent-de-Paul de Paris . Alternatively, you can also take the Funiculaire de Montmartre , a funicular , to get to the basilica.

Organs

The basilica has a main organ and a choir organ. The main organ was built in 1898 by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll . The instrument originally stood in the Ilbarritz Castle of Baron Albert de l'Espée. He sold the organ in 1905 to Cavaille-Coll's successor, Charles Mutin , who set up the castle organ in the hall of the organ building company in Paris and rebuilt it there. In 1914 he sold the instrument to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. The organ was only installed there in 1919 after the First World War, in a new case on the south pore. Between 1980 and 1985 the organ was extensively restored and changes made in the meantime were reversed. Today the instrument has 78 stops on four manual works and a pedal .

I Grand-Orgue Cc 4
01. Montre 16 ′
02. Bourdon 16 ′
03. Viol 16 ′
04th Montre 08th'
05. Flûte harmonique 0 08th'
06th Bourdon 08th'
07th Viole de gambe 08th'
08th. Salicional 08th'
09. Prestant 04 ′
10. Viole 04 ′
11. Nasard 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
12. Duplicate 02 ′
13. Cornet V
14th Fittings V.
15th Cymbals IV
16. Bombard 16 ′
17th Trumpets 08th'
18th Clairon 04 ′
II Positif expressif Cc 4
19th Quintaton 16 ′
20th Principal 08th'
21st Flûte harmonique 0 08th'
22nd Cor de nuit 08th'
23. Salicional 08th'
24. Flute 04 ′
25th Dulciane 04 ′
26th Octavine 02 ′
27. Cornet V
28. Carillon III
29 Basson 16 ′
30th Trumpets 08th'
31. Cromorne 08th'
32. Voix humaine 08th'
Tremolo
III Récit expressif Cc 4
33. Bourdon 16 ′
34. diapason 08th'
35. Flûte traversière 08th'
36. Bourdon 08th'
37. Viole de gambe 08th'
38. Voix céleste 08th'
39. Octave 04 ′
40. Flûte octaviante 04 ′
41. Duplicate 02 ′
42. Plein-Jeu III-V
43. Bombard 16 ′
44. Trompette harmonique 0 08th'
45. Basson-Hautbois 08th'
46. Clairon harmonique 04 ′
Tremolo
IV Solo expressif Cc 4
47. Bourdon 16 ′
48. diapason 08th'
49. Flûte harmonique 0 08th'
50. Octave 04 ′
51. Flûte octaviante 04 ′
52. Octavine 02 ′
53. Cornet VIII
54. Fittings II – V
55. Tuba magna 16 ′
56. Clarinet 16 ′
57. Tuba mirabilis 08th'
58. Trumpets 08th'
59. Cor anglais 08th'
60. Cor harmonique 04 ′
Tremolo
Pedale Cg 1
61. Flute 32 ′
62. Soubasse 32 ′
63. Flute 16 ′
64. Soubasse 16 ′
65. Violonbass 0 16 ′
66. Fifth 10 2 ⁄ 3  ′
67. Flute 08th'
68. Bourdon 08th'
69. Violoncello 08th'
70. Tierce 06 2 ⁄ 5  ′
71. Fifth 05 1 ⁄ 3  ′
72. Septième 04 4 ⁄ 7  ′
73. Corno dolce 04 ′
74. Bombard 32 ′
75. Bombard 16 ′
76. Basson 16 ′
77. Trumpets 08th'
78. Clairon 04 ′
Choir organ

There is also a choir organ with 20 registers (one transmission ) on two manuals, which was built by Charles Mutin in 1914 in a case designed by Lucien Magne in 1904. She has the following disposition:

I Grand Orgue
01. Bourdon 16 ′
02. Montre 08th'
03. Bourdon 08th'
04th Flûte harmonique 00 08th'
05. Salicional 08th'
06th Prestant 04 ′
07th Nazard 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
II Récit expressif (swellable)
08th. diapason 08th'
09. Cor de nuit 08th'
10. Viole de Gambe 08th'
11. Voix céleste 08th'
12. Flûte octaviante 04 ′
13. Plein Jeu IV
14th Basson 16 ′
15th Trompette harmonique 00 08th'
16. Basson-Hautbois 08th'
17th Soprano harmonique 04 ′
Pedale
18th Soubasse (= No.1)0 16 ′
19th Flute 16 ′
20th Flute 08th'

Titular organists :

Bells

Bell tower

A five-part bronze bell hangs in the church tower. The big bell - with a weight of 18.835 t, the largest bell in France and the eighth largest bell in the world - strikes c ° + 4. It was cast in Annecy in 1895 and is called Savoyarde after the Savoy who became French in 1860 .

literature

  • Markus Dauss: Identity Architectures. Historicist public buildings in Paris and Berlin (1871–1918). Thelem, Dresden 2007, ISBN 978-3-939888-02-4 (including about the basilica as the “central condensation point of church identity designs”).
  • Daniel Roth, Günter Lade: The Cavaillé-Coll-Mutin organ of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Paris. Lade, Langen near Bregenz 1992, ISBN 3-9500017-2-7 .
  • Heinfried Wischermann: Architecture Guide Paris (= Hatje Architecture Guide ). Gerd Hatje Verlag, Ostfildern 1997, ISBN 3-7757-0606-2 , p. 87.

Web links

Commons : Sacré-Cœur  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Hotz u. a .: Brockhaus art. F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig-Mannheim 2001, ISBN 3-7653-2772-7 , p. 481.
  2. ↑ Michel Fleury, Alain Erlande-Brandenburg, Jean-Pierre Babelon: Paris. Translated from the French by Nina Brotze and Dieter Kimpel. Hirmer, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-7774-2650-4 , p. 350.
  3. ↑ On the history of the organ. In: edition-lade.com, accessed on March 25, 2017.
  4. ↑ To the disposition. In: edition-lade.com, accessed on March 25, 2017.
  5. ↑ The 10 largest bells in the world. In: TenOfTheDay. April 12, 2018, accessed January 2, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Title addition: “Sacre Coeur, the Parisian confectioner-style church, is to be demolished. That calls for at least an initiative to beautify the city. The proposal was rejected, but it is reminiscent of an old wound. Especially on the day of the Paris Commune , March 18th. "

Coordinates: 48 ° 53 ′ 12 "  N , 2 ° 20 ′ 34"  E