Saint Germain des Près, Paris, France

The Abbey of Saint-Germain des Près is the only remaining Romanesque building in Paris. It was founded, by King Childebert I in 558 AD, on the ruins of a Roman Temple. Its purpose was to house a piece of the True Cross and a Tunic of Sain Vincent the king had bought from Spain. It was dedicated on the day the king died, in 558 AD, by Bishop Germanus who, in 754 AD, would become the namesake of the abbey. It was the burial place of the Merovingian kings until the foundation of the Abbey of Sain Denis.
In the 9th century, the abbey was attacked and damaged by the Normans. It was completely rebuilt between the 11th and 12th centuries. Under royal patronage, the abbey was one of the richest in France, as demonstrated by the 9th-century polyptych and the important scriptorium (a room devoted to the writing, copying and illumination of manuscripts) it housed. It remained a centre of Catholic intellectual life until the French Revolution when it was disbanded and occupied by a factory. The abbey and its cloister were destroyed by an explosion in the factory, from which only the church was spared.
Until 2020 the church will be undergoing very much needed works of restoration.

Opening hours: 8 a.m. to 7.45 p.m.; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Entrance free
How to go: Saint-German-des-Prés metro station



Local: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 75006 Paris, França

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