Saint-Eustache (Paris)
The parish church of Saint-Eustache is considered the most important Parisian church of the 16th century and the first to show motifs from ancient times . It stands on Rue Rambuteau in the 1st arrondissement and was the church of the merchants of the neighboring market, the Halls of Paris (today built with the Forum des Halles ). Saint-Eustache is consecrated to the early Christian martyr Eustachius and is the last Gothic sacred building in Paris; it already shows the spirit of the emerging Renaissance.
history
The church has a length of 100 meters, a width of 43 meters and a vault height of 33.5 meters. This makes it the largest Renaissance church in France.
It was built on the initiative of King Francis I between 1532 and 1640 on the site of an older church from 1214. The large structure of a Gothic church was combined with the ancientizing individual forms of the Renaissance . The west facade was built in 1754 in the classicist style. During the revolution , the church was secularized, looted and used as a stable.
The first communion of the Sun King Louis XIV took place in this church . Here u. a. Pierre Marivaux and Jean-Philippe Rameau are buried. Also noteworthy is the tomb of Jean-Baptiste Colbert , Finance Minister of Louis XIV, located in a choir niche to the left of the apse , which the sculptor Antoine Coysevox created based on a design by Le Brun . The excommunicated playwright and actor Molière , who, like Madame de Pompadour , was baptized in Saint-Eustache, was (temporarily) buried in the parish cemetery, which no longer exists today . Also Anna Maria Mozart was laid to rest there.
Strangely, the builder of the church is unknown, which is actually atypical for this time. The master builder who laid the foundation stone, however, is known: Le Mercier .
architecture
At first glance, the interior gives the impression of a large Gothic basilica. Only if you look longer and more closely do you notice the skilful and well-thought-out integration of antique Renaissance elements, especially pillars, into the basic Gothic structure. Based on Notre Dame, the cruciform floor plan, the five-aisled structure, the triforium and the reticulated vault were chosen based on the Gothic model. The peculiar character of the construction is most evident on the pillars: the gothic pillars are again covered with Renaissance pillars on the outside.
The choir windows, made in 1631 based on drawings by Philippe de Champaigne , show the apostles, the church fathers and St. Eustachius. This can also be seen in a painting by Simon Vouet (around 1635) above the left door arch.
In the past, the church was judged very negatively, e.g. B. von Viollet-le-Duc , one of the leading preservationists in France in the 19th century: “Saint-Eustache is a badly designed and badly constructed building, a confused accumulation of fragments, which - without connection and without harmony - from all corners are borrowed, a kind of Gothic skeleton clad in Roman rags that are sewn together like pieces of a harlequin wall. ”In today's times, when the ideal of purity of style is less the basis of art judgment, the building is seen more positively and it new interpretations are developed (e.g. by Anne-Marie Sankovitch).
Choir vault with hanging keystones
Look into the crossing
View into the main nave
Furnishing
The tomb of Colbert by Le Brun inside the church is one of the most important French sculptures of the 18th century. During the French Revolution and due to a fire in 1844, part of the interior was destroyed.
The exit of the dealers from the market halls after they were relocated to Rungis in early 1969 is reproduced in paper mache in Saint-Eustache . In the church there is a side altar designed by Keith Haring .
music
organ
The first organ in St. Eustache was built in the 16th century. The church has had a lively organ history over the centuries. This includes a number of mishaps, including a. An organ fire in 1844: The instrument, newly built in the same year by the organ building company Daublaine-Callinet , caught fire after Charles Spackman Barker , the instrument's designer, slipped a burning candle during repair work and fell into the organ.
In 1854 the organ builders Ducroquet and Barker built a new work with 68 registers on four manual works and a pedal; this instrument has been revised over and over again at short intervals. a. by the organ builders Joseph Merklin , Rinkenbach and Gonzalez , Herman and Gonzalez, and most recently in 1972; The result of this last restoration was so unsatisfactory that the city of Paris announced a reorganization or a new building in 1985, since the instrument from 1854 was more or less unplayable. Jean-Louis Coignet and the organist of Saint-Eustache at the time, Jean Guillou , drafted the basic design for the new instrument, which was to fit into the existing organ case of the instrument from 1854. On this basis, a tender was issued, from which the organ builders Van den Heuvel (Dordrecht, Netherlands) and Klais ( Bonn ) emerged with equal votes. In 1986 the choice finally fell on the company Van den Heuvel.
The production of the instrument began immediately afterwards in the organ workshop and lasted until August 1988. The organ was set up there ready to play - with the exception of course the case, which remained in the church. In autumn 1988 the parts were transported to Paris and assembled in the organ case within four months and officially accepted in spring 1989.
The organ work is more or less new, with the exception of the prospect pipes and a few stops from the old organ. Was reused u. a. the Cor de Basset 8 ′ , which the British organ builder Henry Willis had given to the organist Joseph Bonnet . Special features of the instrument include a. the two 32-foot registers in the Grand Orgue and in the Récit , the multitude of overblowing flutes (flute harmoniques) in the solo work, and also the Contre-Bombarde 32 ′ in the pedal, which was donated by the organ building company.
The instrument can be played from two console tables. The main console in the organ gallery has a mechanical action for the positif and the grand orgue ; the action for Récit , Grand Coeur , Solo and Pedal are supported by Barker machines ; In addition, the action of the Grand Orgue is equipped with Barker machines, which can, however, be activated; the Barker machines themselves are housed in a particularly sound-absorbing housing. The second game table is moveable in the nave.
The winch consists of six radial fans . A special feature is the distribution of the wind pressures: They are between 90 and 167 mm WS and are taken care of by 23 magazine bellows. With the exception of the positif , all works have at least three different wind pressures, each for bass, middle and treble register; The tubes of the Grand Choeur stand at 150 mm WS; The Chamaden registers in the Solowerk have a six-fold wind pressure that ranges from 105 to 167 mm WS.
The instrument has a total of 101 registers (147 rows of pipes) with over 8000 pipes on five manuals and pedal , making it one of the largest organs in France.
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Pairing :
- Manual coupling: I / II, I / III, III / II, IV / II, V / II, V / III
- Pedal couplings (Tirasses): I / P, II / P, III / P, IV / P, V / P
- Sub-octave coupling (Octaves Graves): II / II, III / III, IV / IV, V / V
- Coupling only at the nave game table: III / P and IV / P each as a super octave coupling; III / I, V / IV as normal coupling; Altkoppel IV / II; Soprano belt V / II
- Playing aids : Crescendo Générale, Sostenuto Positif, Sostenuto Récit, Sostenuto Solo, free combinations, tutti. Appel Machine
- Remarks:
- (h) = historical register from previous instruments
Titular organists
Titular organists at Saint-Eustache have been Thomas Ospital and Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard since 2015 .
Titular organists at Saint-Eustache were:
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World premieres
Several important works of church music were premiered in Saint-Eustache:
- November 22, 1855, the Cäcilienmesse of Charles Gounod
- also in 1855 the Te Deum by Hector Berlioz
- in 1866 the Gran Mass by Franz Liszt
literature
- Julia Droste-Hennings, Thorsten Droste: Paris . DuMont Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-6090-8 , pp. 282-285.
- JL van den Heuvel: The Van den Heuvel organ of Saint-Eustache, Paris . JL van den Heuvel, Dordrecht 1989.
- Anne-Marie Sankovitch, A Reconsideration of French Renaissance Church Architecture. In: Guillaume, Jean (ed.): L'église dans l'architecture de la renaissance: actes du colloque tenu à Tours du 28 to 31 may 1990 . Picard, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-7084-0473-3 , pp. 161-180.
- Eglise St-Eustache (ed.): Le grand-orgue de Saint-Eustache à Paris. Reconstruit en 1877 et 1878 par J. Merklin . Louis Perrin et Marinet, Lyon 1879.
- Heinfried Wischermann: Architecture Guide Paris . Gerd Hatje Verlag, Ostfildern 1997, ISBN 3-7757-0606-2 , p. 42.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Description on the website of the organ building company
- ↑ Comprehensive information on the organ (English, French)
- ^ Organ and disposition information is available on the Church website
Web links
- Église Saint-Eustache in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- Side of the church (french)
- Saint-Eustache (Paris). In: Structurae
Coordinates: 48 ° 51 ′ 48 ″ N , 2 ° 20 ′ 42 ″ E