101 Paris 20th arrondissement : Notre Dame de la croix de Ménilmontant: Go bring me them prophets!

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 Very long church, built on a steep hill, and completed in 1880, with some Romanesque revival and some neo Gothic elements. Before the building was completed, it was used during the Paris Commune for political meetings.

The church boasts a series of paintings of vaguely biblical scenes, including a Death of Saint Joseph, and a painting of Jesus going down into Limbo to pick up some worthy souls who were unable to be saved through your normal believing-in-Jesus route cos they had lived and died long before. This is what Jesus did to pass the time between being crucified and rising from the dead. In particular he made sure to accompany back up to Paradise your major prophets etc, which you can see in the painting I photographed. There is a cool pulpit, too !

Some scenes from Brian de Palma’s erotic thriller, Femme Fatale, were filmed in this church !





































































 

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