Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris
View of St-Sulpice from Montparnesse. Photo by Steve Roe.
Saint-Sulpice with fountain (Ben Murray), art expo (Richard Menneveux).
Tower of Saint-Sulpice in the moonlight. Photo by Jean Ruaud.
The grand organ of Saint-Sulpice. Photo by Claude Covo-Farchi.
Nave and pulpit of Saint-Sulpice. Photos by Markus Masataka.
The "Rose Line" gnomon. Photo by Emilio del Prado.
Obelisk inscription (by Geoffrey Delcroix); a Da Vinci Code response.
Statue of St. Vincent. Photo by Claude Covo-Farchi.
Chapel of the Madonna. Photo by Claude Covo-Farchi.
A dramatic view of the facade of Saint-Sulpice. Photo by Minuk.
Saint-Sulpice is a huge, Late Baroque parish church located in the fashionable neighborhood of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. It recently became even more popular with tourists than usual thanks to its prominent role in the novel The Da Vinci Code, which is dicussed below.
History
The Church of St-Sulpice was founded by the Society of St-Sulpice to replace a cramped Gothic structure. It was constructed in several campaigns between 1646 and 1745.
Saint Sulpicius, after whom the church is named, was a 7th century bishop of Bourges in Aquitaine noted for his piety and his resistance to the tyranny of the Merovingian kings of France.
Known as the "Cathedral of the Rive Gauche," Saint-Sulpice has seen some unlikely christenings over the years — including those of the Marquis de Sade and the poet Charles Baudelaire — as well as the wedding of the irreverent author Victor Hugo.
Nineteenth-century redecorations to the interior, after some Revolutionary damage (when Saint-Sulpice became a Temple of Victory), include work by Eugène Delacroix.
What to See
Outside Saint-Sulpice, the 1844 fountain by Visconti displays the sculpted likenesses of four bishops of the Louis XIV era.
Inside, the main attractions of St-Sulpice are the Delacroix frescoes in the Chapelle des Anges (Chapel of the Angels), the first on your right as you enter. If you like his work, you can see more at the Musée Delacroix, also in Paris.
Another masterpiece of St-Sulpice is Servandoni's rococo Chapelle de la Madone (Chapel of the Madonna), with a Pigalle statue of the Virgin.
The church's organ is one of the world's largest, comprising 6,700 pipes, and has been played by musicians like Marcel Dupré and Charles-Mari Widor. It is located in a rear chapel and provides the setting for a violent attack in The Da Vinci Code.
Da Vinci Code fans will especially be interested in the narrow brass strip called the Rose Line that the monk uses as a reference point in his quest for the Grail. Look for one end of the Rose Line near the middle of the nave on the right side, near a stone statue with a Latin inscription.
From there, you can retrace the monk's path north across the nave and transept to an obelisk next to the statue of St. Peter. The obelisk contains a Latin inscription that doesn't quote Job, but refers to the use of the gnomon as described in the church's note, quoted below.
Saint-Sulpice plays an important role in the popular novel The Da Vinci Code. In chapters 19 and 22 of the book, an albino monk-assassin named Silas pays a visit to Saint-Sulpice, based on instructions Saunière revealed to Silas at gunpoint in the Louvre. The monk searches for a keystone believed to unlock the secret of the Holy Grail.
The Church of Saint-Sulpice, it is said, has the most eccentric history of any building in Paris. Built over the ruins of an ancient temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis, the church possesses an architectural footprint matching that of Notre Dame to within inches. The sanctuary has played host to the baptisms of the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire, as well as the marriage of Victor Hugo. The attached seminary has a well-documented history of unorthodoxy and was once the clandestine meeting hall for numerous secret societies.
Embedded in the grey granite floor, a thin polished strip of brass glistened in the stone... a golden line slanting across the church's floor. The line bore graduated markings, like a ruler. It was a gnomon, Silas had been told, a pagan astronomical device like a sundial. Tourists, scientists, historians and pagans from around the world come to gaze upon this famous line.
...Slowly, Silas let his eyes trace the path of the brass strip as it made its way across the floor from his right to left, slanting in front of him at an awkward angle, entirely at odds with the symmetry of the church. ...The strip cleaved the communion rail in two and then crossed the entire width of the church, finally reaching the corner of the north transept, where it arrived at the base of a most unexpected structure. A colossal Egyptian obelisk.
...The Teacher [had] told Silas of Saint-Sulpice's famed architectural oddity - a strip of brass that segmented the sanctuary on a perfect north-south axis. It was an ancient sundial of sorts, a vestige of the pagan temple that had once stood on this very spot. The sun's rays, shining through the oculus on the south wall, moved farther down the line every day, indicating the passage of time, from solstice to solstice.
The north-south stripe had been known as the Rose Line. For centuries, the symbol of the Rose had been associated with maps and guiding souls in the proper direction. The Compass Rose - drawn on almost every map - indicated North, East, South and West.
The book goes on to explain that the original zero-longitude line passed through Paris, along this Rose Line, before being moved to Greenwich, England.
Silas follows the line to the obelisk, and gets an unpleasant surprise - the instructions were actually a well-rehearsed lie designed the guard the secret of the Grail. In the designated spot, Silas finds only a reference to a verse in the Book of Job which reads "Hitherto shalt thou go and no further." Silas attacks the sole occupant of the church, Sister Sandrine, as she attempts to phone for help.
In the wake of the popularity of The Da Vinci Code, the church of Saint-Sulpice posted the following note in English:
The "meridien" line materialized by a brass inlay in the pavement of this church is part of a scientific instrument built here during the 18th century. This was done in full agreement with Church authorities by the astronomers in charge of the newly-built Paris Observatory. They used it for defining various parameters of the earth's orbit. Similar arrangements have been made, for the sake of convenience, in other large churches like the Bologna cathedral, where Pope Gregory XIII had preparatory studies made for the enactment of the present, "Gregorian" calendar.
Contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent bestselling novel, this is not the vestige of a pagan temple. No such temple ever existed in this place. It was never called a "Rose Line." It does not coincide with the meridian traced through the middle of the Paris Observatory which serves as a reference for maps where longitudes are measured in degrees East or West of Paris. No mystical notion can be derived from this instrument of astronomy except to acknowledge that God the Creator is the master of time.
Please also note that the letters "P" and "S" in the small round windows at both ends of the transept refer to Peter and Sulpice, the patron saints of the church, not an imaginary "Priory of Sion."
Well, The Da Vinci Code version makes a good story. But even the facts are not without interest, in providing an example of the cooperation of science and religion. It would not be unreasonable to expect the church was built on a pagan temple; this was a regular practice. However, it seems unlikely that the sundial, especially if known to be pagan, would have been preserved or reconstructed in the new church building.
Quick Facts
| Names: | Èglise Saint-Sulpice; St-Sulpice; Saint-Sulpice Church |
| Type of site: | Parish church |
| Faith: | Roman Catholic |
| Dates: | Built 1646-1745 |
| Status: | Active |
| Address: | Rue St-Sulpice, 6e, Paris |
| Phone: | 01-46-33-21-78 |
| Website: | www.paroisse-saint-sulpice-paris.org |
| Metro: | St-Sulpice |
| Hours: | Daily 8:30am-8pm |
| Cost: | Free |
Location Map
Interactive location map and satellite view of Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris. For a much larger view, see our Paris Map or Google Earth download.
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More Information
- Official Website of Saint-Sulpice (French only)
- Fodors.com - "A Da Vinci Code Tour"
