St Severin, facade from the square

Eglise St Severin, upper facade

Gargoygles, north side

The square is narrow in front of Saint Severin-Saint Nicholas, but you can get a 3/4 angle (see below) by going up the square toward the Cluny Museum. The two photos on the left are of the front; the one on the right was taken on rue St. Severin to the north, looking straight up at the gargoyles. It was a Sunday and was crowded, so we only went in for a moment and didn't try to take pictures. There are more photos below, but let me give some history. For those of us who come from places where detailed history goes back so few hundred years, it may be disorienting to try to grasp that in the 6th Century (6C), a hermit named Severin lived approximately on this spot. He persuaded Clodoald, grandson of King Clovis, to take holy orders, and an oratory was built here in his memory. Since that time on the same spot several churches have been rebuilt after the existing buildings were destroyed by Norman invasion and by fire. All were called St. Severin, although it is said that only the first was named for the hermit Severin, and the latter ones were named for St. Severinus of Switzerland. The present building was under construction from the 13C to the 20C, because there was never enough money to finish it. The east end (opposite from where these pictures were taken) was built at the end of the 15C, and has features of a "hall type" church. "In it one finds a concave-sided pier, and even a twisted pier just as in some Late Gothic German hall-churches." (Pevsner) This church is on the Left Bank, two blocks from the Seine.

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Here are three more pictures of the front of St. Severin-St. Nicholas. Marco and I were using different cameras and different film, and the colors came out very different on this dull, overcast day in mid-January. More details and history: The main west portal, seen here, was built in the early 13C and brought from a church on the nearby Ile de la Cite (the island where Notre Dame stands) in 1837. The upper two storeys are 15C. The tower on the left (seen in the first row of pictures) was finished in 1487. The three pillars closest to the entrance (to your back) are 13C Gothic, remaining from a previous church destroyed by fire. The arches between them are almost as rounded as Romanesque arches (only the one closest to the camera). These pillars are short, cut by capitals halfway up; you can only see one of them in the photo. The next four pillars are 15C. The arches are sharper, and the arcs radiate from cloverleafs on the wall (not visible in this photo). The flame effect gives it the name "Flamboyant Gothic." With the lights of the apse on, the vaulting is said to give the effect of a palm grove. The pillars and arches surrounding the altar are 15C, but were wrapped in red marble when Mlle de Montpensier ("The Grande Mademoiselle"), cousin of Louis XIV, changed parishes and bestowed gifts on this, her new one. An altar of the same material is now in the first chapel on the left. Louis's mistress, Mlle de Montespan, concerned about his attentions to younger women, got one of the priests to say a black mass on this altar using the hearts of two turtle doves. A 16C painting on one of the walls was uncovered in 1968; all of the damned in the painting are women. The 15C windows in that area were destroyed in WWII; the ones remaning are by Jean Bazaine, done in 1966. The first three bays in the nave have late 14C glass (restored); from the fourth bay on, the glass is mid 15C. The organ is from 1745. In medieval times, yearly awards were given to the five most virtuous maidens in the parish, and the most scandalous were put on display in cages. These days the church is known for concerts.

Tympanum detail (very fuzzy, sorry)

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In the photo on the left, you can see the gargoyles jutting from the masonry on the left side of the photo. This is the opposite side of the church from where Marco took the picture looking stright up. To the right of the church as you stand at the front is the garden. It's behind a tall fence and can't be entered from the outside, but you can go through the church and enter it from a doorway in the fourth bay (south wall). The garden was once a burial ground surrounded by a charnel house. Part of the galleries (seen above, and in the third picture of the previous set) are restored, looking much as they did in medieval times. They are the only ones still left in Paris today. The charnel house here was a repository for bones as they were dug up when the graveyard became over-full. Also in the charnel house in 1474 (according to the Michelin Green Guide) the first operation for gall stones was performed. (Why in a charnel house, I'm not sure -- a shorter distance to take the body if the operation failed?) The story says that an archer, condemned to death, suffered from gall stones, and was offered his freedom by Louis XI should he survive the experimental operation. It was successful, and the archer was cured and set free.

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From the front of the church you can look north (left photo) to rue St.-Severin, with its small grocery and Greek restaurants, or look south (right photo) toward the medieval Cluny Museum. The garden and galleries of St. Severin are behind the fence at the left.

Off-site links

More photos
Wikipedia

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All photos are © Copyright Sheryl Todd and Marco Herranz.