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The Église Saint-Augustin de Paris (; English: Church of St. Augustine) is a
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
church located at 46 boulevard Malesherbes in the
8th arrondissement of Paris The 8th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le huitième'' (). The ar ...
. The church was built between 1860 and 1871 by the Paris city chief architect
Victor Baltard Victor Baltard (; 9 June 180513 January 1874) was a French architect famed for work in Paris including designing Les Halles market and the Saint-Augustin church. Life Victor was born in Paris, son of architect Louis-Pierre Baltard and attended ...
. It was the first church in Paris to combine a cast-
iron frame The term iron frame describes the structural use of either cast iron or wrought iron in the columns and Beam (structure), beams of a building. While popular in the 19th century, the iron frame was displaced by the steel frame in the early 20th centu ...
, fully visible, with stone construction. It was designed to provide a prominent landmark at the junction of two new boulevards built during
Haussmann's renovation of Paris Haussmann's renovation of Paris was a vast public works programme commissioned by French Emperor Napoleon III and directed by his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870. It included the demolition of medieval ...
under
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
.Dumoulin. "Églises de Paris" (2010), p. 141 In 1886, Saint-Augustin was the site of the conversion of Charles de Foucauld, who was canonised as a saint by
Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
on 15 May 2022. The church includes a chapel dedicated to Foucauld, in which is preserved the
confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall where the priest from some Christian denominations sits to hear the confessions of a penitent's sins. It is the traditional venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Luther ...
where he returned to the Catholic Church.


History

In the 1850s and 1860s
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
carried out a massive reconstruction of the center of Paris, which was carried out by
Georges-Eugène Haussmann Georges-Eugène Haussmann (; 27 March 180911 January 1891), commonly known as Baron Haussmann, was a French official who served as prefect of Seine (1853–1870), chosen by Emperor Napoleon III to carry out a massive urban renewal programme of n ...
. Wide boulevards were built to cut through the overcrowded medieval city, with monumental new buildings at the meeting points of the new boulevards. Saint-Augustin was intended to be the anchor of Boulevard Malesherbes, balancing The Church of La Madeleine at the other end. It was also designed to be visible from the
Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, often called simply the Arc de Triomphe, is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Plac ...
down the avenue de Friedland. The size and design of the church was inspired by Saint Paul's and other great churches of London, where Napoleon III had lived in exile before becoming President of France and then Emperor. The church was designed by Haussmann's fellow
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
, architect
Victor Baltard Victor Baltard (; 9 June 180513 January 1874) was a French architect famed for work in Paris including designing Les Halles market and the Saint-Augustin church. Life Victor was born in Paris, son of architect Louis-Pierre Baltard and attended ...
, who from 1849 onwards was Chief Architect of the City of Paris. He was responsible for the restoration of several Paris churches damaged in the French Revolution, including
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Saint-Étienne-du-Mont () is a church in Paris, France, on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the 5th arrondissement, near the Panthéon. It contains the shrine of St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. The church also contains the tombs of ...
, Saint-Séverin, Paris, and
Saint-Germain-des-Prés Saint-Germain-des-Prés () is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Its official borders are the River Seine on the nor ...
. In the 1850s he designed his most famous work,
Les Halles Les Halles (; 'The Halls') was Paris' central fresh food market. It last operated on 12 January 1973 and was replaced by an underground shopping centre and a park. The unpopular modernist development was demolished yet again in 2010, and replac ...
markets, also using an iron structure. They were demolished in the 1970s and replaced by an underground shopping mall. The chosen site was trapezoid-shaped lot at the intersection of four streets, which meant that the back of the church was wider than the front. The length of the boulevard, the small site the need to make the church visible from far away, called for a dome of which covered virtually the entire church. The key innovation of Baltard was the use of cast iron for the structure of the church which permitted Baltard to greatly reduce the thickness of the walls, and to eliminate the need for heavy buttresses outside. By the end of the 20th century, after the period of modernism, the church design was considered by some holding modernist views to be out of fashion, although this view has largely been superseded in favour of conservation. As late as 1995, one critic described the church as "an eyesore: ridiculously sited, without proportion, crushed beneath an outsized dome". Despite this, it is still considered a masterpiece of architecture of the Second Empire and is duly given the honour of ''Monument Historique'' by the French State


Exterior

The church was built between 1860 and 1871 in an eclectic style combining Tuscan Gothic, Romanesque and
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
elements. The church is very large: one hundred meters long and eighty meters high to the lantern of the dome, which has a diameter of 25 meters. Because of the boulevards that converge at the site, it also has an unusual shape, a trapezoid, with the front much narrower than the rear. The dome occupies almost the entire facade. Saint-Augustin's facade features a frieze by sculptor
François Jouffroy François Jouffroy (; 1 February 1806 – 25 June 1882) was a French sculptor. Biography Jouffroy was born in Dijon, France, the son of a baker, and attended the local drawing school before being admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in ...
depicting
Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
and the
twelve apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...
above the
four evangelists In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew the Apostle, Matthew, Mark the Evangelist, Mark, Luke the Evangelist, Luke, and John the Evangelist, John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel accounts ...
. The rose window was designed by Prosper Lafaye (1806-1833). It has the unusual feature of being reinforced with an armature of cast iron. The dome is surrounded by four towers which serve as buttresses. File:Church in Paris412.jpg, The facade File:Paris, Saint-Augustin, Außenansicht (3).jpg, The apse or rear of the church, surrounded by chapels


Interior: the nave and choir

The most striking feature of the interior is the great open space, made possible by the cast iron frame and roof. The frame, which is fully visible, serves as well as a decorative element; the cast-iron columns line the walls, and are painted and decorated with gilding and with polychrome angels, created by Louis Schroeder (1828-1898). The choir is the portion of the church reserved for the clergy in the centre of the church, and is raised. Over the altar is a ciborium or baldaquin, an open walled domed structure made of gilded cast iron, in the Renaissance style. A modern, moveable altar is placed in the centre of the choir, obstructing the view of the former high altar, in order to facilitate mass
versus populum ''Versus populum'' (Latin for "towards the people") is the liturgy, liturgical stance of a priest who, while celebrating Mass (liturgy), Mass, faces the people from the other side of the altar. The opposite stance, that of a priest facing in the ...
, and may be removed when mass is celebrated
ad orientem ''Ad orientem'', meaning 'to the east' in Ecclesiastical Latin, is a phrase used to describe the eastward orientation of Christian prayer and Christian worship, comprising the preposition ''ad'' (toward) and ''oriens'' (rising, sunrise, east), p ...
, whether in the
Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...
or Tridentine form of the Roman Rite. File:Paris, Saint-Augustin, Innenansicht (2).jpg, The nave, choir and the ciborium over the altar with the original high altar partially obstructed by the modern timber altar File:Dome @ Eglise Saint-Augustin @ Paris (31411198736).jpg, The interior of the dome, eighty meters high, showing its iron structure File:Baldaquin StAugustin.jpg, The Ciborium or baldequin over the main altar


Chapels

A series of chapels, filled with art, surround the nave and choir. On the right side of the nave is a chapel dedicated to the soldier, geographer and priest Charles de Foucauld, who was converted to Christianity in the church in 1886. It displays documents related to his life. He was beatified 2005 and declared a saint in 2022. The largest chapel is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and by tradition is located in the apse at the east end of the church. Three chapels are placed around the choir, and are decoration with lavish materials; they are entered through archways with rose-colored marble columns and arches, and altars decorated with mosaics. File:P1030116 Paris VIII église Saint-Augustin Chapelle de la Vierge rwk.JPG, The Chapel of the Virgin File:Chapelle du Sacré-Cœur de l'église Saint-Augustin de Paris.jpg, Chapel of the Sacred Heart File:Chapelle Saint-Joseph de StA.jpg, The Chapel of Saint Joseph File:Chapelle Foucauld.jpg, The austere Foucauld Chapel, dedicated to Saint Charles de Foucauld, who was canonized in 2005.


Art and Decoration

The church is lavishly decorated with art. The stained glass windows depict bishops and martyrs of the first centuries and the cast-iron columns are decorated with polychrome angels. A statue of Joan of Arc, by Paul Dubois, was erected in the church in 1896. The church features paintings by
William-Adolphe Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French Academic art, academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of Classicism, classical subjects, with a ...
, Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin,
Émile Signol Émile Signol (March 11, 1804 – October 4, 1892) was a French artist who painted history paintings, portraits, and genre works. Although he lived during the Romantic period, he espoused an austere neoclassicism and was hostile to Romanticism. ...
,
Alexandre-Dominique Denuelle Alexandre-Dominique Denuelle, a French decorative painter and architect, was born in Paris in 1818. He studied under Delaroche, and afterwards served on the Commission for Historical Monuments. He died at Florence in 1879. He was largely engaged ...
and sculpture by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse and Henri Chapu. The large oval paintings of Saints and angels on the upper walls were made by William Bouguereau (1825-1925). He simplified and enlarged the figures because of their height on the walls and the dim light, and often placed them against a background of a blue sky. File:P1030126 Paris VIII eglise Saint-Augustin façade détail rwk.JPG, The frieze depicting Christ and the Twelve Apostles over the west portal File:Charles Marville, Eglise St. Augustin - portes, ca. 1850–70.jpg, Portal doors by
Charles Marville Charles Marville, the pseudonym of Charles François Bossu (Paris 17 July 1813 – 1 June 1879 Paris), was a French photographer, who mainly photographed architecture, landscapes and the urban environment. He used both paper and glass negatives. ...
(1850–70) File:Charles Marville, Eglise St. Augustin, Moreau, Mathurin, sculpteur 2, ca. 1853–70.jpg, Sculpture by
Charles Marville Charles Marville, the pseudonym of Charles François Bossu (Paris 17 July 1813 – 1 June 1879 Paris), was a French photographer, who mainly photographed architecture, landscapes and the urban environment. He used both paper and glass negatives. ...
(c. 1853-70)
File:P1030365 Paris VIII église Saint-Augustin 4 Evangelistes Saint-Mathieu rwk.JPG, Saint Matthew on the facade File:Rosace saint Augustin Paris.jpg, Rose window exterior File:Poteau St Augustin Paris.jpg, A sculpted cast iron post from the interior File:Paris (75008) Église Saint-Augustin - Extérieur - Façade principale - 18.jpg, Decoration on the facade: "Faith", painted by Paul Balze File:Paris (75008) Église Saint-Augustin - Extérieur - Façade principale - 17.jpg, Facade: "Hope" by Paul Balze


Stained glass

Unlike the custom in other 19th-century churches, the architect Baltard did not install white glass to bring more light into the nave. On the two lower levels of the nave, he employed windows with geometric figures. On top level, he used images of saints and martyrs, The stained glass of the windows on the dome over the choir are coloured with
grisaille Grisaille ( or ; , from ''gris'' 'grey') means in general any European painting that is painted in grey. History Giotto used grisaille in the lower registers of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua () and Robert Campin, Jan van Ey ...
, heightened with jaune d'argent. This accounts for the rather dim light in the nave.
Site on church history and art (in French)
The stained glass portraits of saints surrounding the dome are examples of monochrome
grisaille Grisaille ( or ; , from ''gris'' 'grey') means in general any European painting that is painted in grey. History Giotto used grisaille in the lower registers of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua () and Robert Campin, Jan van Ey ...
windows, highlighted with gilded designs The chapels around the nave and the choir feature windows devoted to saints and apostles, noting the names of the donors at the bottom. File:Paris Saint-Augustin531.JPG, the rose window, made with an iron framework File:Paris Saint-Augustin545.JPG, "An Angel" (detail - click to enlarge) File:Paris Saint-Augustin536.JPG, "The Visitation" (apse) File:Paris Saint-Augustin530.JPG, "Descent from the cross" (Apse) File:Paris Saint-Augustin11.JPG, "Saint Vincent de Paul, a
Grisaille Grisaille ( or ; , from ''gris'' 'grey') means in general any European painting that is painted in grey. History Giotto used grisaille in the lower registers of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua () and Robert Campin, Jan van Ey ...
window on the drum of dome File:P1030108 Paris VIII église Saint-Augustin vitrail rwk.JPG, Geometric window designs (nave) File:Paris Saint-Augustin671.JPG, Window detail (nave)


Organs

The organ is celebrated in the world of organ building. The church's main organ was built by Charles Spackman Barker, famous in the organ design world for inventing the Barker lever which revolutionised the means of transmission from the keyboard to the organ pipes. It was constructed in 1867-1868, and dedicated on June 17, 1868. The same organ was also one of the first to employ electricity. It was removed for restoration by Cavaillé-Coll (1899), Beuchet-Debierre (1961) and Dargassies (1987). It features 54 stops with three 54-key manual keyboards and pedalboards. The church has a smaller organ located just over the choir. The choir organ was built by Cavaillé-Coll-Mutin in 1899, rebuilt by Gonzalez-Danion in 1973, and(1983) It has two keyboards with 61 notes, a pedalier with 32 notes, electric transmission, and 30 pipes, 21 working. File:Paris, Saint-Augustin, Hauptorgel (2).jpg, The grand organ over the west entrance of the nave File:P1030123 Paris VIII église Saint-Augustin orgue rwk.JPG, The grand organ and the rose window File:P1030119 Paris VIII église Saint-Augustin Orgue du choeur rwk.JPG, The choir organ


The Church and its setting

The church was designed to be a highly-visible landmark at the meeting of two boulevards, and to be seen from the top of the Arc de Triumphe. File:St. Augustine Church, Paris, France-LCCN2001698532.jpg, The church in the 1890s File:Toits Paris Saint Augustin depuis arc de Triomphe 2.jpg, From the
Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, often called simply the Arc de Triomphe, is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Plac ...


References


Sources

*Dumoulin, Aline; Ardisson, Alexandra; Maingard, Jérôme; Antonello, Murielle; ''Églises de Paris'' (2010), Éditions Massin, Issy-Les-Moulineaux, (in French) *


External links


Official church website




patrimoine-histoire.fr (Site on history, architecture, art and decoration of church (in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Eglise Saint-Augustin De Paris Augustin Roman Catholic churches completed in 1868 Church buildings with domes 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in France