Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile, located at 6 rue Sainte-Cécile in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, was built between 1854 and 1856 under the impulse of Napoleon III, in tribute to his uncle Eugene de Beauharnais. Designed by architects Louis-Auguste Boileau and Adrien-Louis Lusson in just twenty months, it replaces the former Hotel des Menus-Plaisirs. Its originality lies in its completely metallic frame, a first in Paris, inspired by the rationalist theories of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, although the latter criticized the project as an "architectural lie". Funded by Abbé Coquant, parish priest and landowner, its construction cost about 500,000 francs, seven times less than the church of Madeleine.

The church is distinguished by its lack of transept and its lateral chapels ensuring the counter-buttoning of the dogid vaults, thus liberating space on a small terrain. Its façade imitates the Gothic style of the 13th century, while the interior, painted and decorated with glass windows signed by master glassmakers such as Gaspard Gsell and Eugene Oudinot, offers remarkable brightness and acoustics. The organ, designed by Merklin and Schütze for the Universal Exhibition of 1855, and the 12 metre high carved oak buffet, complete this artistic ensemble. Ranked a historical monument in 1983, the church is also known for its double term added in 1952: Saint Cécile, patron saint of musicians, because of its proximity to the Conservatoire de Paris.

The church Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile plays a particular liturgical role as a "briitualist" building, where both Mass in ordinary Roman rite and Tridentine Mass are celebrated. It regularly hosts solemn ceremonies, such as the annual requiem for Louis XVI on January 21, hosted by the Schola Sainte-Cécile, a choir specializing in baroque sacred music. In 2021, a polemic broke out after an Easter Mass in tridentine rite celebrated without respect for health rules during the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a judicial investigation and tensions with the archdiocese of Paris. Despite this, the church remains an emblematic place of Parisian religious and architectural heritage.

On January 10, 1857, Jules Verne married Honorine Viane in this church, an event marking her history. Its innovative architecture, combining metal and neo-Gothic decor, makes it a unique testimony to the constructive experiments of the 19th century, while meeting the liturgical and urban needs of a growing Parisian population. The restorations of the interior paintings in 1982-1984 and of the organ in 1995 and 2005 helped preserve this jewel, where history, art and spirituality blend together.

External links