Saint Roch Church on Rue Saint-Honoré
Saint-Roch Church, one of the largest and most remarkable in Paris, is located on Rue Saint-Honoré.
Although this street is now synonymous with prestige, its origins were humble.
Indeed, in the Middle Ages, it was little more than a muddy path leading to the vast Rouvray forest (now the Bois de Boulogne). In the 12th century, the path was improved to serve the bustling market of Les Halles, thus attracting various artisans, merchants, and a thriving community of millers and bakers.
The latter settled on a small hill called the Colline Saint-Roch, where they built windmills and dedicated the street to their patron saint, Saint Honoré. The eastern part of Rue Saint-Honoré thus remained a working-class and commercial street.
Its western extension, first called Rue Neuve-Saint-Honoré, then Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, near the Louvre fortress, became one of the most aristocratic addresses in Paris, attracting courtiers and the wealthy elite.
The Colline Saint-Roch was home not only to windmills, but also to a modest chapel dedicated to Sainte Suzanne, patron saint of gardeners and tile makers.
However, the small chapel quickly became too small to celebrate ordinary masses, as well as the numerous funeral masses for this overcrowded neighbourhood, which was also prone to recurring epidemics and high mortality rates.
Thus, in the mid-17th century, Louis XIV commissioned the levelling of the hill to build a new and larger parish church.
The king entrusted the architect Jacques Lemercier with this project. In 1653, he laid the first stone of Saint Roch Church, which was dedicated to Saint Roch, patron saint of bakers and millers, and protector against the plague!
However, due to a lack of funds, construction dragged on for over a century. With the disappearance of the millers and bakers, whose mills had vanished along with the hill, the parish had lost its most faithful patrons!
The work was interrupted many times, but over the decades, the grand church slowly took shape.
The architects of Saint Roch Church
Predominantly Baroque (the opulent style of the Jesuits, also known as the Counter-Reformation style), Saint-Roch Church is gigantic, and illustrates the evolution of French religious architecture.
The monumental facade, begun in 1653 by Robert de Cotte and completed by his son in 1740, features a bold composition. Its lower level is indeed adorned with eight Doric columns, while the upper section features Corinthian columns framing a triangular pediment.
Successive architects have also left their mark by designing side chapels surrounding the choir, each surmounted by a dome.
The Chapelle de la Vierge (Chapel of the Virgin), designed in 1709 by Francois Mansart, is a vast oval space adorned with a nativity scene and a painted dome depicting the Assumption of Mary. In 1717, the banker John Law financed the Chapelle de L’Adoration, and the Chapelle du Calvaire (Calvary) was built in 1754 according to Falconet‘s original plans, on the site of the parish cemetery.
The Church of Saint-Roch is not only an architectural masterpiece, but also boasts a wealth of exceptional decorations.
Paintings, frescoes, and sculptures by masters such as Antoine Coysevox, Guillaume Coustou, and Théodore Chassériau adorn its chapels.
Among them, one can admire Chassériau’s Saint Francis Xavier Baptising the Indians in the Chapelle du Baptistère (Baptistery).
Finally, Saint Roch Church also houses the mausoleums of illustrious figures: André Le Nôtre, the visionary landscape architect of Versailles, Denis Diderot, the philosopher and encyclopedist, and of Pierre Corneille, one of the greatest French playwrights.
Directions: 1st District
Metro: Pyramides on Line 7
Coordinates Saint Roch Church: Lat 48.864937 – Long 2.332283
