High above the busy cobblestone streets and the hustle and bustle of the right bank sits the white gleaming Byzantine basilica of Sacre Coeur. It is hard to imagine the hill without its limestone wedding cake topper but we actually don’t have to go back that far to a time before it existed. In 1870, it was decided that a basilica “of the National Vow” was to be built in Paris, but where was the question.
It was proposed that it be built where the unfinished Opera Garnier was and even at Chaillot which would have ended up looking at the Eiffel Tower a few years later. None of these locations held any religious meaning, and it would be the Archbishop of Paris, Joseph-Hippolyte Guibert that suggested it be built on Montmartre saying “it is here where the martyrs rest, it is her that the Sacre Coeur must reign in order to draw all to it”.
The building was funded by everyday people, donating anything they could even if it was only a few cents and later subscriptions of stones to dioceses and towns. On June 16, 1875 the first stone was laid and the construction began. Much of the gypsum filled hill needed to be reinforced with deep shafts which added cost and time to the completion. It would be 1914, before it was mostly finished, but the start of WWI delayed the opening. On October 15, 1919 at 7:30am the Archbishop of Paris Cardinal Amette purified the outside of the church while inside on the center of the floor a cross of Saint Andrew was drawn in ashes signifying Christ and Cardinal Amette said a blessing.
At 10am, chairs were brought in and the faithful followed. A parade of the relics of Saint Denis and his fellow martyred Eleutherius and Rusticus were carried down through the nave, finally returning home to the high altar. As the congregation gathered amongst the candle light, above the largest bell in France, the Savoyarde rang out. My grandparents made many trips to visit Sacre Coeur and my grandpa always had his trusty Konica snapping away on an early morning and climbing the steps to get the unbelievable view of Paris below