Saint-Eustache (Paris) - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

Parish church of St. Eustace (Église Saint-Eustache), located in the heart of Paris, belongs among pearls of Gothic architecture and also is one of the most important Roman Catholic churches in French capital.

The Church of St. Eustace is a church in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The present building was built between 1532 and 1632. Situated at the entrance to Paris's ancient markets (Les Halles) and the beginning of rue Montorgueil, St Eustace's is considered a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture. The church’s reputation was strong enough of the time for it to be chosen as the location for a young Louis XIV to receive communion. Mozart also chose the sanctuary as the location for his mother’s funeral. Among those baptised here as children were Richelieu, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, future Madame de Pompadour and Molière, who was also married here in the 17th century. The last rites for Anne of Austria, Turenne and Mirabeau were pronounced within its walls. Marie de Gournay is buried there.

The church is an example of a Gothic structure clothed in Renaissance detail. Although the architects are unknown, similarities to designs used in the extension of the church of Saint-Maclou in Pontoise (begun in 1525) point to Jean Delamarre and/or Pierre Le Mercier, who collaborated in that work. The Italian-born architect Domenico da Cortona has also been suggested. The church is relatively short in length at 105 m, but its interior is 33.45 m high to the vaulting. At the main façade, the left tower has been completed in Renaissance style, while the right tower remains a stump. The front and rear aspects provide a remarkable contrast between the comparatively sober classical front and the exuberant rear, which integrates Gothic forms and organization with Classical details. The L'écoute sculpture by Henri de Miller appears outside the church, to the south. A Keith Haring sculpture stands in a chapel of the church. [wiki]