Paris - Saint-Etienne-du-Mont

The church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont was founded in 1492 for the servants of the Benedictine monastery which once stood on this site. Although it is dedicated to St Stephen, Paris's patron saint, St Genevieve, who saved the city from destruction by Attila the Hun, is also venerated here. The area round the church is named the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève after her.

The building of the church extended from the Late Gothic period to the Renaissance, and this is reflected in its architecture. The choir and transepts were completed in 1540, the nave in 1610. The ground-plan of the church and the stellar vaulting over the crossing with its pendant keystone 5.50m/18ft long, the "Lamb of God", are still Gothic, but the undecorated round pillars already show the influence of the Renaissance. The richly decorated west front (by Claude Guérin, 1610-18) is in pure Renaissance style; the turret at the right-hand end is probably a survival from an earlier 13th century building. An unusual feature for a Renaissance church is the triforium (normally found only in Gothic churches), which runs round the nave half way up the wall like a gallery. The church is famed for its rood-screen (by Philibert de l'Orme, 1530-41), with a marble central section and a spiral staircase at each end. To the right of this, at the entrance to the Lady Chapel, are the epitaphs of the philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-62) and the dramatist Jean Racine (1639-99), who are buried in the church. To the left, in front of the next side chapel but one, is a sarcophagus which is said to contain a stone from the tomb of St Genevieve. There are stained glass windows dating from the construction of the church in the north aisle (Apocalypse, 1614) and the south aisle (Parable of the Marriage Feast, 1586).