The Great Churches of Paris: Saint-Germain-des-Prés

This week, learn about The Romanesque Churches of the High Middle Ages

This lecture will describe the churches built in Paris during the High Middle Ages in the style “descended from the Romans”, with thick walls, round arches, and barrel vaults. The first churches were built in Paris in the 6th century, but they were all destroyed during the Viking invasions of the 9th century. After the Viking threat was removed, monasteries rapidly spread across France in the 11th and 12th centuries, and they surrounded Paris. The oldest churches in Paris, all originally associated with monasteries, date from this period and were built in the Romanesque style.

The Evolution of the Church and Ecclesiastical Architecture in Paris From the Middle Ages to Today

Every Thursday at 12 noon Central Time in Chicago / 1 p.m. Eastern Time in Miami / 19h Central European Time in Paris – from January 12 through February 16, 2023

Following the success of the Grands Châteaux of the Loire and Ile-de-France and The Making of the French Garden series of online talks, Russell Kelley spent the summer visiting the most beautiful churches of Paris! Our curator extraordinaire returns to offer a series of 6 talks packed with information about another important pillar of France’s cultural and architectural heritage: the extraordinary variety of churches that were built in every commune in France – but especially in Paris – over the past one thousand years.

Russell Kelley is the curator and moderator of the past two winters’ Zoom lecture series on the “Grands Châteaux of the Loire and Île de France” and the “Making of the French Garden”. He has lived in Paris for 30 years and is the author of The Making of Paris: The Story of How Paris Evolved from a Fishing Village into the World’s Most Beautiful City (Lyons Press, 2021).

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This program is presented in partnership with the Alliance Française Miami Metro with communication support from the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA, the French Heritage Society, and the Association of American Women in Europe.

Through our Entrée Libre initiative, free admission to this program is offered to students enrolled in French Studies in universities and French schools in Chicago and the Midwest. You MUST register with an .edu address to get a Zoom link for the event.