ST-PIERRE DE MONTMARTRE
Leaving the most ancient of Paris churches we come to the most remarkable among the modern churches of Paris and of France—l’Église du Vœu National, commonly known as the Sacré-Cœur. It is an impressively historic structure for it was built after the disasters of 1870-71, by “La France humiliée et repentante,” a votive church erected by national subscription. To make its foundations sure on the summit of the Butte, chosen as being the site of the martyrdom of St-Denis, patron saint of the city, the hill was probed to its base, almost to the level of the Seine, and a gigantic foundation of hard rock-like stone built upwards. The huge edifice rests upon a vast crypt, with chapels and passages throughout its entire extent. It has taken more than forty years to build; the north tower was finished just before the outbreak of the war, now advancing to a triumphal end, for which grand services of thanksgiving will ere long be held in this church built after defeat. The interior is still uncompleted. Looking at it from close at hand, the immense Byzantine structure with its numerous domes, seems to us æsthetically somewhat unsatisfying, but from a distance dominating Paris, seen as it often is through a feathery haze, or with the sun shining on it, the vast white edifice makes an imposing effect. Its great bell, la Savoyarde, given by the diocese of Chambéry, weighs more than 26,000 kilogrammes, and its sound reaches many miles.
VIEUX MONTMARTRE, RUE ST-VINCENT
(Maison de Henri IV)
RUE MONT-CENIS
(Chapelle de la Trinité)
Rue Chevalier de la Barre, bordering the church on the north, was formerly in part of its length Rue des Rosiers, in part Rue de la Fontenelle, referring to a spring in the vicinity. In a wall of the Abri St-Joseph at No. 26, we see the bullet-holes made by the Communards who shot there two French Generals in March, 1871. Going up Rue Mont-Cenis we see interesting old houses at every step. No. 22 was the home of the musician Berlioz and his English wife Constance Smithson. Crossing this long street from east to west at this point, the winding hill-side Rue St-Vincent with its ancient walls, its trees, its grassy roadway, makes us feel very far removed from the city lying in the plain below. At No. 40 is the little cemetery St-Vincent. Returning to Rue Mont-Cenis we find at No. 53 a girls’ college amid vestiges of the ancient, famous porcelaine factory, the factory of “Monsieur” under the patronage of the comte de Provence, brother of Louis XV. The tower we see there was that of the windmill which ground the silex. At No. 61 we come upon a farm dating from 1782, la Vacherie de la Tourelle. At No. 67 an old inn once the Chapelle de la Trinité (sixteenth century).