Eglise Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption – A few historical facts
The Eglise Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption is located on Rue Saint-Honoré, a stone’s throw from the Louvre.
It was built in the 1670s by the architect Charles Errard, the director of the French Academy in Rome.
The plot of land on which the church was built was bequeathed by the Jesuits to the Sisters of the Assumption for the construction of a convent. However, the unusual shape of the land led Errard to modify his plans to adapt to the plot’s configuration.
Strongly influenced by the styles of the Italian Renaissance and Roman Antiquity, Errard indeed built the church on a central plan, considered a complete departure from the architectural norms of the time.
Thus, its architecture, inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, sparked controversy!
Indeed, its imposing classical facade features a peristyle supported by six Corinthian columns, leading directly into a spacious rotunda 24 metres in diameter.
A spectacular 65-square-metre fresco depicting the Assumption of the Virgin, the work of the artist Charles de la Fosse, adorn centre of the rotunda’s coffered ceiling.
Eight windows open onto the lower part of the rotunda, diffusing a soft light that highlights the beauty of the numerous paintings and frescoes.
The church also boasts a late 19th-century organ, built by the renowned organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
Eglise Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption, the Polish Church in Paris
The Convent of the Sisters of the Assumption was destroyed during the French Revolution; however, the church was preserved and transformed into a warehouse for theatrical scenery. However, its paintings and furnishings were sold or destroyed. The church was returned to religious use in 1802 and became the parish church of the 1st arrondissement of Paris.
The Eglise Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption was entrusted to the Polish community of Paris in 1844. Many Poles fleeing the Russian invasion of their country had indeed taken refuge in the French capital after the November Uprising of 1830-1832 in Warsaw.
The interior of the church was renovated between 1856 and 1857, while the remaining monastic buildings were demolished in 1898 to make way for the Cour des Comptes (Court of Auditors). The church was renovated in 1933, from 1969 to 1971, and again from 2012 to 2014.
Today, the Eglise Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption is primarily dedicated to the Polish Catholic Church and houses the headquarters of the Polish Mission in France. You will find a bust of Karol Józef Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II, on the church porch. The Eglise Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption was listed as a historical monument on December 20, 1907.
The Eglise Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption is one of the 25 Paris churches I have selected for you, lesser-known, yet equally remarkable and beautiful.
Directions: 1st district – Place Maurice-Barrès on Rue St-Honoré
Metro: Concorde on Lines 1,8,12
Coordinates: Lat 48.867440 – Long 2.325780
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Interior and Church exterior and Header by Guilhem Vellut CC BY 2.0
