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200 Churches in Paris and elsewhere

Being a leading world expert in ... something else entirely (really), I started this blog to accompany my walking round Paris visiting churches (occasional guest appearances from synagogues mosques etc), walks initially decided just because I need more exercise. Very little technical vocab, but some good views. Many of the churches are in Paris, but many are churches I went to on my various trips. We are talking relaxed browsing round churches here, not comprehensive analysis.

18 Ss Peter and Paul, San Francisco

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- July 04, 2022

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177 Barcelona, Sagrada Familia: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and the wee donkey

- February 15, 2026

Obviously, breathtaking. I ran out of superlatives before I even got inside. Worth coming a very long way to see ( which I myself didn’t: I had a conference round the corner). And it will soon be finished, with the help of the ticket income from around 5 million visitors a year. It will have eighteen towers: twelve for the apostles, four for the evangelists, one for Mother Mary, and one for the little biddy baby, born, born, born in Bethlehem. The land to build the basilica was bought in 1881 (the land was cheap then cos not much city), but the church was not actually consecrated until 2010, by Pope Benedict. Gaudi of course was chief architect, until he died in 1926 in a tram accident. Since then other architects have tried to follow his inspiration. I was interested in the fact that the large number of columns in the centre of the structure means that the outside walls are not carrying as much weight and this allows them to have those huge stained glass expanses. Stunning...

180 Paris, St Vincent de Paul : a pulpit you would kill to preach from

- March 18, 2026

180 Paris, St Vincent de Paul : a pulpit you would kill to preach from Magnificent church, in particular with beautiful frescoes (Jesus getting baptized, the last supper, creation of Eve etc). Also highly imposing confessionals, and a pulpit you would kill to preach from (well, figuratively speaking). Gilded pillars and crucifixes and a royal blue background for the stations of the cross. Named for St Vincent de Paul, 17th century holy man heavily into charity, and who worked hard for the men in the harshest prisons of the time, the church recently celebrated its two hundredth birthday, but I think it is the anniversary of the laying of the first stone. The parish was created by decree in the month of Messidor, in the year 12 (in the time when the French revolutionaries were thinking “the world is completely new now, so we need a new calendar and ten-hour clocks”). Twenty years or so later the church was started. Big chunks were inspired by Greek temple architecture. Top au...

169 Accrington mosque - childhood memories

- December 17, 2025

This is a blog about churches, for a few reasons. There are lots of them in places I go, and I got brought up Catholic so I know a lot about the liturgical side. Also, I’m a historian so I think traces of the past are cool. I only rarely put in mosques or synagogues or other religious buildings. This is mainly because Christian churches are generally more showy and theatrical than is the case for other religious buildings. But I have on occasion put in synagogues and mosques which interest me particularly and also serve to remind us that everyone else’s religion is dead respectworthy too. This mosque is in Accrington, where I lived for quite a number of years in the 1970s, and have regularly visited ever since. I’m including it for mostly personal reasons. When I lived there, in the part of town where half our neighbours were Pakistanis, the everyday racism against Pakistanis and Muslims was basically omnipresent, in my town and my (Catholic) school. They certainly didn’t have a d...

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177 Barcelona, Sagrada Familia: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and the wee donkey

- February 15, 2026

Obviously, breathtaking. I ran out of superlatives before I even got inside. Worth coming a very long way to see ( which I myself didn’t: I had a conference round the corner). And it will soon be finished, with the help of the ticket income from around 5 million visitors a year. It will have eighteen towers: twelve for the apostles, four for the evangelists, one for Mother Mary, and one for the little biddy baby, born, born, born in Bethlehem. The land to build the basilica was bought in 1881 (the land was cheap then cos not much city), but the church was not actually consecrated until 2010, by Pope Benedict. Gaudi of course was chief architect, until he died in 1926 in a tram accident. Since then other architects have tried to follow his inspiration. I was interested in the fact that the large number of columns in the centre of the structure means that the outside walls are not carrying as much weight and this allows them to have those huge stained glass expanses. Stunning...

180 Paris, St Vincent de Paul : a pulpit you would kill to preach from

- March 18, 2026

180 Paris, St Vincent de Paul : a pulpit you would kill to preach from Magnificent church, in particular with beautiful frescoes (Jesus getting baptized, the last supper, creation of Eve etc). Also highly imposing confessionals, and a pulpit you would kill to preach from (well, figuratively speaking). Gilded pillars and crucifixes and a royal blue background for the stations of the cross. Named for St Vincent de Paul, 17th century holy man heavily into charity, and who worked hard for the men in the harshest prisons of the time, the church recently celebrated its two hundredth birthday, but I think it is the anniversary of the laying of the first stone. The parish was created by decree in the month of Messidor, in the year 12 (in the time when the French revolutionaries were thinking “the world is completely new now, so we need a new calendar and ten-hour clocks”). Twenty years or so later the church was started. Big chunks were inspired by Greek temple architecture. Top au...

169 Accrington mosque - childhood memories

- December 17, 2025

This is a blog about churches, for a few reasons. There are lots of them in places I go, and I got brought up Catholic so I know a lot about the liturgical side. Also, I’m a historian so I think traces of the past are cool. I only rarely put in mosques or synagogues or other religious buildings. This is mainly because Christian churches are generally more showy and theatrical than is the case for other religious buildings. But I have on occasion put in synagogues and mosques which interest me particularly and also serve to remind us that everyone else’s religion is dead respectworthy too. This mosque is in Accrington, where I lived for quite a number of years in the 1970s, and have regularly visited ever since. I’m including it for mostly personal reasons. When I lived there, in the part of town where half our neighbours were Pakistanis, the everyday racism against Pakistanis and Muslims was basically omnipresent, in my town and my (Catholic) school. They certainly didn’t have a d...

161 Paris : The Church of Saint Louis en l’Ile: twirly pulpit and relics of King Louis

- September 30, 2025

The church of “St Louis on the Island” is , well, on the island – one of the two islands in the River Seine, in the centre of Paris, just across the road from the amazing Berthillon ice cream parlour. It was mostly built in the 17 th century for Saint Louis, the only saint to have also had a day job as King of France (in the 13 th century). When he was King he banned trial by ordeal, which is cool, and fought on the seventh crusade, which was less so. Inside there is a twirly pulpit, relics of Saint Louis, and a very fine painting by Jacques Stella of Jesus getting baptized. There are also wooden statues of a series of saints, a beautiful alms box, and a plaque presented by the citizens of the town of Saint Louis over in Missouri, USA. One of the stained glass pieces shows Jesus rising from the dead, waving his flag. They do a mass in English once a week .

173 Mulhouse St Stephen's (Temple Saint Etienne)

- January 17, 2026

173 Mulhouse St Stephen's (Temple Saint Etienne) Now this is a protestant church - this is the East of France, where protestantism has been strong since the Reformation. It is dead symbolic that smack in the centre of the altar is the pulpit for preaching, rather than say, the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament etc. The church of the Word versus the church of the Sacrament, perhaps. There was a Catholic church on this site until the 1520s, when they followed Basle and Zurich and so on, got rid of the statues and abolished the mass. Then they demolished and rebuilt the building in the mid 19th century. It is the tallest protestant church in France, partly because they wanted to be sure not to be outshone by local Catholic edifices. The architect, Schacre, was previously well known for building new-fangled railway stations. There is a monument to commemorate the Armenian genocide of 1915-16, and also seventeenth century Baroque choir stalls and fourteenth century stain...

170 Zurich, Switzerland, Grossmünster and tingly Zwingli

- December 20, 2025

Zurich, Switzerland, Grossmünster and tingly Zwingli Twelfth to fifteenth century Romanesque church in local sandstone. Big. Fabulous doorpanels with scenes from the Bible and quotes from Jesus in monumental, chiseled, sans-serif typeface. Lovely modern stained glass, and bas reliefs of the evangelists. I was there on, if not for, the 500th anniversary of the Zurich disputations, which were a series of public debates held in this church in order to decide how Protestant the town was going to be. These were carried out in German, so all the townspeople could understand. In the first disputation, the Catholics lost (their line was “only the Pope and his mates can decide this, let’s go for a pint instead). After that the town council decreed that all preaching in the city must be based only on the Bible (so no more Lenten fasts, clerical celibacy or golden chalices). The second disputation cut down on statues a lot, and the third decided baptizing babies was okay. Normally in neigbou...

172, Paris, St Peter of Montrouge, site of Paris commune battle

- January 02, 2026

Nineteenth century neoromanesque church. The architect was Emile Vaudremer and he took general inspiration from Roman basicilas and stuff. He also designed the Lycée Buffon, a Parisian high school. During the war against Prussia in 1870, part of the church was used as a hospital ward. The following year, during the Paris commune, when the ordinary workers controlled the city, the church was used as a debating chamber. The belltower served as a lookout tower, because the army of reaction was on its way from Versailles. A canon was set up at the top. On the 23rd May the church was attacked and 37 men were executed by the Versaillais. The church has rather gloomy Stations of the Cross, but an impressive pulpit and altar canopy.

150 Paris 11th arrondissement : Saint Ambroise – dinky stations of the cross

- July 05, 2025

Built in honour of Saint Ambrose of Milan, fourth century bishop and one of the four great Latin church fathers, who put innovative chanting into churches, and who wrote some hymns which are still regularly used today. The church was consecrated in 1910 (a previous church on the site had been opened in 1818). Its impressive set of towers is now easier to appreciate since they opened the garden opposite. The entrance porch includes allegorical figures representing theology and eloquence. The church contains dinky stations of the cross, mosaics of a series of saints, and a fine altar canopy, The noticeboard explains how you can learn sewing on Thursday nights.

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John Mullen

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18 Ss Peter and Paul, San Francisco

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