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Origin and history

The former seminary Saint Sulpice found its origins in the 17th century with Jean-Jacques Olier, parish priest in 1642. In 1641 he founded a priestly formation house in Vaugirard, transferred in 1651 to a building on Rue du Vieux-Colombiar, designed by architect Jacques Lemercier. This first seminary, model for the formation of priests in France, was demolished in 1800 to clear Saint Sulpice Square, after the suppression of the congregations in 1792. The façade of the church, designed by Servandoni in 1732, required this destruction, effective under Bonaparte.

The current seminary was rebuilt between 1820 and 1838 on the plans of Stephen-Hippolyte Godde, architect of the City of Paris, after the restoration of the Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice by Louis XVIII in 1816. It was financed two-thirds by the State and one-third by the City, and occupied land enlarged by expropriations, including houses on the streets of Pot-de-Fer (now Bonaparte Street) and Férou. The building, inspired by Italian palaces, consists of four austere buildings around an inner courtyard, with a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, now inaccessible.

The 1905 Law on the Separation of Church and State led to the evacuation of the seminary in 1906. The building then served as a shelter during the 1910 flood, then as a shelter for refugees and soldiers during the First World War. In 1922 he was assigned to the Ministry of Finance, despite an aborted project of restitution to the Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice in 1924. The chapel and facades were listed as historical monuments in 1959.

The architecture of the seminary reflects its dual heritage: religious by its initial vocation and cloister, and administrative by its present use. The stained glass windows and the vaulted ceiling, as well as the massive appearance of the buildings, bear witness to this transition between the 19th and 20th centuries, marked by the political and social upheavals of France.

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