27 Paris 13th arrondissement : Eglise Notre Dame de la Gare
Everybody’s heard of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception or our Lady of Sorrows etc, but at first sight the name of this church appears to be Our Lady of the Railway Station, which is … original. If I understand correctly, in fact the “gare” referred to is the river port which was at the centre of this neighbourhood for a very long time.
This is a mid-nineteenth century church. According to a plaque you will see below, it was founded by a priest, Abbé Parguel, who was “a father to the poor, and was poor himself”. He is buried in the church. There is a fine Pietà and some other things to see. One plaque commemorates the celebration of a mass in 1939 in the church by three “native bishops” from Uganda, Madagascar and India. The plaque shows both the colonialist attitudes of the time (“native” bishops!) but also the desire at the time to declare that people from all countries were equal before God.
I am told the church dates from a time when medieval architecture was in vogue (see the romanesque arches). The twenty first century is also present, in the form of holy water dispensers you can operate with your foot (presumably installed during the COVID 19 epidemic)
