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Origin and history

The Protestant temple of the Holy Spirit, nicknamed "Roquepine", is a place of worship built in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, at the intersection of Rue Roquepine and Rue d'Astorg. Inaugurated on December 3, 1865 under the Second Empire, he responded to the need to offer a religious space to the growing Protestant community in a neighbourhood undergoing urban change. Its architecture, entrusted to Théodore Ballu and Paul-Louis Renaud, is part of the Haussmannian project of beautification in Paris, marked by the creation of new axes and public buildings.

The temple rises on a land acquired in 1862 by the city of Paris, at the initiative of Prefect Haussmann, himself a Lutheran Protestant. It replaces the Protestant chapel on Rue Saint-Lazare, destroyed to give way to the church of the Holy Trinity. The neo-classical building includes an octagonal nave inspired by the temple of La Rochelle, a school, housing and a parish house. His pediment, adorned with a Bible surrounded by palm trees and twelve stars, symbolizes his reformed identity.

From its inauguration, the temple became a central place for French Protestantism. In 1872 he hosted the General Synod of the Reformed Churches, chaired by François Guizot, marking a division between liberals and Orthodox. In 1938, it housed the synod of reunification of the Reformed Church. The building, classified as a historical monument in 2011, is distinguished by its Mutin organ (1898), its stained stained glass windows of 1905 and its architectural heritage linked to the Baltard Halles.

The temple of the Holy Spirit also illustrates the internal tensions of 19th-century Protestantism. The liberals, opposed to dogmatism, confronted the evangelicals, attached to the founding texts such as the Confession of La Rochelle (1571). Two of his pastors, Jean-Arnold de Clermont and François Clavairoly, became presidents of the Protestant Federation of France. Today, there remains a symbol of Protestant anchoring in the Parisian landscape.

Its architecture combines classical influences and innovations, like the glassware inspired by the Baltard Halles, replaced in 1905 by a non-figurative window. The pulpit and the Baptistery come from the old chapel on Rue Saint-Lazare. A citizen of the Saint Paul Hotel, the temple is part of a coherent urban complex, reflecting the cultural and religious ambitions of the Second Empire.

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