Église Saint-Sulpice (Paris, France)
Église Saint-Sulpice
Home of one of Europe's greatest pipe organs, Saint-Sulpice has also gained fame as a site of action in the popular novel The Da Vinci Code.
One of the largest churches in Paris, Saint Sulpice was built in the 17th century over the foundations of a much early church dating from around the 12th century. The facade is impressive and you will recognize it by the two towers in front.
One of its greatest attractions is the massive pipe organ…7,000 pipes in all…which took three men working the bellows just to get the music going. Of course that was in a day before electricity. Today you can still enjoy the music during Mass, and organ enthusiasts often climb the stairway up to the loft to view the organ itself. Their is normally an organ concert after Sunday Mass as well.
In the Chapelle des Saints-Anges you can view the three paintings of Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix, dating from 1861. There are two enormous wall paintings, each more than 23 feet high, and one nearly as large on the ceiling at more than 16 feet across.
The church doors were set on fire by an arsonist in 2019, but fortunately damage was contained to the doors and was not signifcant. It was one of many attacks on Catholic churches in Paris in 2019.
References to St-Sulpice in The Da Vinci Code have brought thousands of curious fiction readers to the church.