Church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs

"Temple of the Hymen and Fidelity" in 1795, the church was returned to worship in 1802. It was restored in the first half of the 19th century (in 1823 and again in 1843). Altarpiece of the main altar by Simon Vouet and Jacques Sarrazin.

About this building

Key Features

  • Architecture
  • Stained glass
  • Monuments
  • Interior features
  • Atmosphere / quiet space
  • Churchyard
  • Social heritage
  • Famous people or stories

Visitors information

  • Bus stop within 100m

Other nearby buildings

Wikimedia Commons/MOSSOT

Saint-Martin-des-Champs Priory

A Merovingian funerary basilica was built on this site around the 6th and 7th centuries and renovated in the Carolingian period. The Royal Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, Cluny's third daughter, was founded in 1060 and a new building was built on this presumed site of a miracle by Saint Martin. The original plan of the choir probably inspired that of the Basilica of Saint-Denis built a few years later, the church of the Conservatory would constitute the oldest testimony of Parisian Gothic. The abbey was declared a national property in 1790 and since 1798 has housed the new Conservatory of Arts and Crafts created by Abbot Gregory in 1794, whose former abbey church, abandoned for worship, serves as an exhibition room for its museum. The complex was largely refurbished under the July Monarchy and the Second Empire, under the direction of the architect Léon Vaudoyer. The Foucault pendulum has been installed in the choir.

Wikimedia Commons/Guilhem Vellut

Église Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle

The current building of the Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle church is the third place of worship to be built on the site. In 1551, a first chapel was built, which was destroyed in 1590 by the Catholic League during the siege of Paris by Henry IV. In April 1628, Queen Anne of Austria laid the foundation stone for a new church, which became a parish in 1673. It became national property in 1791, was sold in 1797 to three parishioners, and then bought by the city of Paris in 1803. Following the damage suffered during the Revolution, it threatened to fall into ruin and the decision was taken to rebuild it. Étienne-Hippolyte Godde, an architect for the Paris municipality who also designed the churches of Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrement and Saint-Pierre-du-Gros-Caillou in the French capital, was commissioned to rebuild it.