Sacre Coeur Basilica, in Paris in a early spring day
A law of public utility was passed to seize land at the summit of Montmartre for the construction of the basilica. Architect Paul Abadie designed the basilica after winning a competition over 77 other architects.[12] With delays in assembling the property, the foundation stone was finally laid 16 June 1875. Passionate debates concerning the Basilica were raised in the Conseil Municipal in 1880, where the Basilica was called "an incessant provocation to civil war" and it was debated whether to rescind the law of 1873 granting property rights, an impracticable proposition. The matter reached the Chamber of Deputies in the summer of 1882, in which the Basilica was defended by Archbishop Guibert while Georges Clemenceau argued that it sought to stigmatise the Revolution. The law was rescinded, but the Basilica was saved by a technicality and the bill was not reintroduced in the next session. A further attempt to halt the construction was defeated in 1897, by which time the interior was substantially complete and had been open for services for six years.[13] View of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur at night View of the rear of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur View of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur Equestrian Statue of Joan of Arc at Basilique du Sacré-Cœur The overall style of the structure shows a free interpretation of Romano-Byzantine features, an unusual architectural vocabulary at the time, which was a conscious reaction against the neo-Baroque excesses of the Palais Garnier, which was cited in the competition.[14] Many design elements of the basilica symbolise nationalist themes: the portico, with its three arches, is adorned by two equestrian statues of French national saints Joan of Arc (1927) and King Saint Louis IX, both executed in bronze by Hippolyte Lefebvre; and the nineteen-ton Savoyarde bell (one of the world's heaviest), cast in 1895 in Annecy, alludes to the annexation of Savoy in 1860.
Size: 2480px × 3720px
Location: Paris Montmartre, France
Photo credit: © ELASPOT / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: (french:, ), ., 000, 1870-71., 24, 58, 1873, archbishop, arose, assemblé, asserted, basilica, basilique, catholic, catholics, church, church/, coeur, commonly, communards, commune, commune., construction, crimes, decades, decree, dedicated, democrats, design, devout, division, du, ensuing, entombed, expiate, france, france., franco-prussian, french, heart, honor, inspiration, insurrection, jesus, july, landmark, legitimist, lives, located, lost, minor, montmartre, nationale, originated, paris, popular, pronounced, radicals, request, responding, revolution, roman, royalists, sacre, sacred, sacré, sacré-œur, schism, secularists, side, site, socialists, society, specifies, sum, today, uprising, voting, wake, war, œur
