Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Saint Augustine church in Paris came into being in 1831 with the construction of a temporary wooden chapel dedicated to Saint Augustine, located on Rue de Laborde. This neighbourhood, then called Petite Poland, experienced a population boom during the Second Empire, pushing Prefect Haussmann to trace wide avenues. The need for a prestigious building at their intersection motivates the construction of the present church, entrusted to Victor Baltard between 1860 and 1871. Its bold architecture, combining iron, cast iron and stone, makes it the first large religious building to use a metallic structure, while its eclectic style synthesizes Romanesque, Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance elements.

Father Langénieux, appointed parish priest in 1867, accelerated the work and supervised the layout of the presbytery, designed to house twenty vicars. Napoleon III initially planned to install an imperial crypt for the princes of his family, but this project was abandoned after his death in exile. The church, inaugurated in 1868, quickly became a landmark: Charles de Foucauld converted in 1886 under the influence of Abbé Huvelin, and Edmond Rostand married Rosemonde Gérard there in 1890. However, its acoustics and recollection are disturbed by traffic noise, due to its position at the crossroads of Haussmann and Malesherbes Boulevards.

The interior of the church is distinguished by its cast iron columns adorned with polychrome angels, its stained glass windows signed by Laurent-Charles Maréchal and Prosper Lafaye, and his paintings by Diogene Maillart and Claude Guy Hallé. The organs, by Charles Spackman Barker (1868) and Cavaillé-Coll (1899), are among the most remarkable in Paris. Classified as a Historic Monument in 1993, the church benefited from a restoration of its facade between 2016 and 2018, but its condition remains worrying, with a dome protected by a net and water infiltrations into the nave.

Baltard's architecture, assisted by Émile Vaudremer, breaks with tradition by removing the foothills thanks to the metal structure. The irregular plan, adapted to a non-rectangular terrain, creates a narrow contrasting facade with a spacious choir. The interior decorations, made by artists such as Bouguereau, Flandrin or Carrier-Belleuse, illustrate the eclecticism of the Second Empire. Despite its prestige, the church now suffers from structural degradation, as evidenced by the signol scabs removed for prevention.

A symbol of Haussmannian Paris, Saint-Augustin embodies both technical innovation and the artistic delight of his time. Its history reflects the urban transformations of the 19th century, between modernization of infrastructure and affirmation of imperial power concerned with monumentality. Anecdotes, such as Charles de Foucauld's conversion or Rostand's marriage, highlight his role in Parisian cultural and spiritual life, despite the challenges posed by his noisy environment and expensive maintenance.

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