The Great Churches of Paris: Les Invalides

This week: The Renaissance Churches, and the Baroque Churches of the Counter-Reformation

François Ier introduced Renaissance architecture to France upon his return from his first war in Italy in 1515. In Paris, the Wars of Religion (1562-98) slowed the construction of purely Renaissance churches, but Gothic churches such as Saint-Eustache and Saint-Étienne-du-Mont were decorated with Renaissance elements such as pilasters, arches and entablatures. Once the Wars of Religion ended and Louis XIII took the throne, the Counter-Reformation that began with the Council of Trent (1545-63) belatedly arrived in France, and there was a surge of church-building in Paris in the new Baroque style with its barrel vaults and large domes. Between 1610 and 1760, 24 new façades were built in Paris in the new Baroque style featuring two or three levels of columns in the classical orders. Baroque churches in Paris include Saint-Gervais (the only one without a dome), the Chapelle de la Sorbonne, Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, Val-de-Grâce, and the gilded Dome Church of the Invalides.

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 / 1:00 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.