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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church of Sainte-Marguerite, located at 36 rue Saint-Bernard in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, came into being in 1624, when Jean de Vitry, seigneur of Reuilly, offered land to build a chapel dedicated to Saint Marguerite. It became a branch church of Saint Paul in 1634 and became a parish church in 1712. Its cemetery, opened in 1637, and its successive enlargements (nave in 1679, chapels in the eighteenth century) mark its architectural and religious evolution.

During the French Revolution, the church played a central role: his parish priest, Abbé Charles-Bernardin de Laugier de Beaurecueil, refused the constitutional oath and was dismissed in 1791. The cemetery became the burial place of 300 guillotines, including Louis XVII in 1795, whose remains, never formally identified, were the subject of unsuccessful searches under the Restoration. A commemorative plaque and a stele today recall this tragic episode.

In the 19th century, the church was marked by heritage protections (frontons classified in 1928, Chapel of Souls-du-Purgatory in 1960) and restorations. Its interior houses remarkable works, such as the Christ descended from the Cross of Charles Dorigny (1546) or the neo-classical chapel of Victor Louis (1760-1764), decorated with trompe-l'oeil by Paolo Antonio Brunetti. The cemetery, closed in 1804, gave way to a square, while the church preserved traces of its past, including the tombstone of Georges Jacob son.

The architecture of the church, in Latin cross, mixes classicism (doric pilaster facade) and baroque elements (slate wood collar, clocks). Its stained glass windows, such as those commemorating the Carmelites of Compiègne or the visit of Pius VII in 1805, bear witness to its historic anchor. Ranked a historic monument in 2017, it remains a place of memory and cult active in the Parisian landscape.

The Chapel of the Souls-of-Purgatory, jewel of the church, illustrates the art of the trompe-l'oeil with its temple painted by Brunetti and Briard (1760-1762). This decor, unique in Paris, and sculptures (like The Martyr of Saint Marguerite by Maindron) highlight the artistic richness of the place. Organs, paintings (schools of Le Brun or Lagrenée) and funeral monuments complete this exceptional heritage.

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