Saint-Germain-des-Prés Abbey
The former abbey and today's church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés ( French Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés [ abei də sɛ̃ ʒɛʁmɛ̃ de pʁe ], Église de Saint-Germain-des-Prés [ eɡliz də sɛ̃ ʒɛʁmɛ̃ de pʁe ] ) is located in the Paris district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés named after her in the 6th arrondissement on Boulevard Saint-Germain, which is centrally located in the city center .
The first church building at this point was consecrated in 558. The abbey, which is largely destroyed today, also dates from this or the following century. The later name of the abbey and church goes back to the 8th century and refers to St. Germanus ( Saint Germain ), who was the 20th bishop of Paris from 550 to 576 .
The structure of today's church dates from the 11th to 17th centuries. Particularly noteworthy is the choir , which was consecrated in 1163 by Pope Alexander II . The wall paintings (19th century) are the work of Hippolyte Flandrin .
history
Already in Roman times there is said to have been an Isis temple with its own initiation cult at the site of the later church . The original church was built from 557 by Childebert I , a son of Clovis I , not far from the Île de la Cité to honor two relics that the Frankish king had captured in Saragossa . The church was therefore first dedicated to the Holy Cross and Saint Vincent of Saragossa ( Basilique Sainte-Croix et Saint-Vincent ). The later nickname of the Germanus Abbey indicates its location outside the city walls, on pastureland that was not yet developed at the time ( French les prés , the meadows ). During this time, the abbey served as the necropolis of several Frankish kings from the Merovingian line , before the current cathedral of Saint-Denis took over this role. Childebert I was the first king to be buried here in December 558 by Bishop Germanus of Paris .
In 576 Germanus himself was buried in a neighboring chapel before his bones were transferred behind the main altar of the church in 755 - in the course of his canonization - by the Carolingian Pippin the Younger and his sons Karl and Karlmann . After the abbey, which is also known as Saint-Vincent-le-Doré because of its gilded roofs, aroused the greed of the Vikings in the 9th century , was plundered and burned down, it was rebuilt in the 10th century. In the meantime it had taken the name of St. Germanus and was henceforth Saint-Germain-des-Prés .
Large parts of the abbey were destroyed at the beginning of the 19th century, only the church and the abbot's palace on Rue Jacob , commissioned by the then Commendatar Abbot Cardinal Charles I. de Bourbon in 1586 , are still preserved today. The building with the military prison, the Prison de l'Abbaye , was only demolished in 1854.
In the church there is a permanent exhibition on the history of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
organ
The history of the organs goes back to the 15th century. In the course of time there were various instruments, u. a. an organ from 1667, installed in Saint-Eustache in 1798. Today's instrument goes back to an organ acquired in 1805, which was rebuilt in 1973 by the organ building company Haerpfer & Erman . The instrument has 56 registers on four manuals and a pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical.
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- Pair : I / II, III / II, IV / II, I / P, II / P, III / P, IV / P
Abbots
- Irminon, abbot around 820
- Hilduin I , abbot 829
- Gauzlin , Abbot of Jumièges , then Abbot of St. Germain-des-Prés 867–879, Arch Chancellor ( Rorgonids ) from 883–884
- Ebalus, son of Duke Ranulf I of Aquitaine , abbot from 888-891, Arch Chancellor ( Ramnulfiden )
- Hugo Capet
- Morard, 990-1014
- Hugues de Monceaux, 1162-1182
- Eudes, abbot around 1230
- Simon, abbot from 1239 to 1244
- Guillaume Briçonnet , 1501-1507
- Guillaume Briçonnet , abbot from 1507 to 1534, bishop of Lodève
- François de Tournon (* 1489; † 1562)
- Cardinal Charles de Bourbon , Archbishop of Rouen and Commander Abbot of St. Germain-des-Prés, abbot around 1586
- François, Prince de Conti
- Henri de Bourbon, duc de Verneuil , natural son of Henry IV , abbot until 1668 (gave up his ecclesiastical benefices in order to be able to marry)
- John II Casimir , former King of Poland , abbot from 1668 to 1672
- Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg (* 1629; † 1704), abbot 1697–1704
- César d'Estrées (* 1628; † 1714), Bishop of Laon, 1674 cardinal
- Henri Pons de Thiard de Bissy (* 1657; † 1737), abbot 1715–1737, 1692 bishop of Toul, 1704 bishop of Meaux, 1715 cardinal
- Louis de Bourbon-Condé, comte de Clermont (* 1709; † 1771), Commendatar Abbot from 1737 to 1771
- Charles-Antoine de la Roche-Aymon , abbot from 1772 to 1777
Priors
- Nicolas Jamin , prior 1766–1769, theological author
Funerals
In the previous building, Saint-Vincent-Sainte-Croix, the following were buried:
- Childebert I , Frankish king 558:
- after 567: Ultrogotho, wife Childebert I.
- Germanus of Paris , saint 576:
- Chilperich I , Frankish king 584:
- Fredegunde , Franconian Queen 598:
- Sichildis , Frankish queen 629:
- Chlothar II , Frankish king 630:
- Childerich II , Frankish king 675:
The following were buried in Saint-Germain-des-Prés:
- Bishop of Paris († April 19, 989) 989: Lisiard,
- 1595: Catherine de Bourbon-Condé, Marquise of Isles (1575–1595), daughter of Henri I de Bourbon, prince de Condé
- 1610: Marie de Bourbon-Conti (* / † 1610), daughter of François' de Bourbon, prince de Conti and Louise-Marguerites de Lorraine-Guise
- 1614: François de Bourbon, prince de Conti (1558–1614)
- 1648: Nicolas, bâtard de Conti († 1648), son of François' de Bourbon
- 1682: The heart of Henri de Bourbon, duc de Verneuil (1601–1682), legitimate son of Henry IV and Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues
- 1683: Louis César de Bourbon, comte de Vexin (1672–1683), legitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan
- 1707: Jean Mabillon , (1632–1707), Benedictine monk, scholar and founder of the auxiliary historical sciences
- 1714: Simon Bougis , (1630–1714), Benedictine monk, abbot and superior general of the Congregation of Saint-Maur
- February 26, 1819: René Descartes , reburied from the crumbling L'Abbaye Sainte-Geneviève de Paris
literature
- Julia Droste-Hennings, Thorsten Droste: Paris . DuMont, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-6090-8 , pp. 238-240
- Heinfried Wischermann: Architecture Guide Paris . Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern 1997, ISBN 3-7757-0606-2 , p. 25
- Dieter Kimpel, Robert Suckale : The Gothic architecture in France 1130-1270 . Hirmer, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-7774-4040-X , pp. 123-125, 528-530
Web links
- Private page with modern and historical photographs
- Abbaye Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- The parish of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ More information about the organ at musiqueorguequebec.ca .
- ↑ Depoin, Joseph: Essai sur la chronologie des évêques de Paris de 768 à 1138 (Bulletin historique et philologique du comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques), Paris 1906, p. 17.
Coordinates: 48 ° 51 ′ 14 " N , 2 ° 20 ′ 4" E