Sacré-Cœur

Seen from almost anywhere in Paris, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart is the white shape on the skyline at the top of Montmartre, the city's highest hill. The whiteness is not paint and not cleaning: the church is built of travertine from Château-Landon, south of Paris, a stone that releases calcite when rain falls on it, so the building bleaches itself with every shower and stays pale while the city around it darkens.

The basilica was born of defeat. After France's defeat in the war of 1870, Bishop Félix Fournier called for a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart as an act of national penance, and the layman Alexandre Legentil led the campaign to raise the money. Paul Abadie won the design competition against 77 other entries with a Romano-Byzantine scheme of pale domes, and building began in 1875. The ground of the hill proved unstable, and the foundations had to be carried down through 83 deep shafts. Five architects succeeded one another before the church was finished in 1914; the war delayed its consecration until 1919. From the start it was contested, because the hill overlooked the heartland of the Paris Commune of 1871, and for many on the left the basilica looked like a monument to the Commune's suppression.

Inside, the eye goes straight to the apse. Luc-Olivier Merson's mosaic, one of the largest in France at about 475 square metres, is titled The Triumph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and is assembled from some 25,000 pieces; its Christ in glory dominates the whole nave. The great organ is by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, and the bell tower holds the Savoyarde, a bell of nearly 19 tonnes. On the main façade, bronze equestrian statues of Joan of Arc and Saint Louis ride out toward the city. A tradition of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has continued day and night without a break since 1885.

The central dome rises to 83 metres, and visitors can climb to a gallery around it for a panorama over the whole of Paris. The church stands some 200 metres above the level of the Seine, and even the steps in front of it give one of the broadest views of the city, best at dusk.

Getting there

Sacré-Cœur stands on the summit of Montmartre in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, about 1 km from the centre of the arrondissement. The nearest airport is Paris-Orly (ORY), about 18 km away. The closest Métro station is Anvers on line 2, from where it is an uphill walk to the basilica.