Paris - Saint-Germain-l'Auxerroiss

Paris is the capital and largest city of France, with over 2 million inhabitants and more than 13 million in the greater metropolitan area.


The first place of worship on the site was a small oratory founded in the 5th century to commemorate a meeting of Saint Germanus with Saint Genevieve. This chapel was replaced by a large church around 600. That church was destroyed by the Normans in 886, rebuilt by King Robert II the Pious. By the 13th century, it was again considered too small, and was enlarged further. Further changes and additions were made in the 15th and 16th centuries. The current structure is largely from the 15th century,

During the Wars of Religion, its bell was rung on the night of 23 August 1572, which signaled the beginning of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. Thousands of Huguenots, who were visiting Paris for a royal wedding, were killed by the city's mob.

During the French Revolution, the church was closed, pillaged, and converted into a barn for storing feed for animals, a printing shop, and a gunpowder factory at various times. The building was returned to the Catholic Church in 1801, but suffered again during an anticlerical riot in 1831, when many paintings, funeral monuments, and windows were damaged or destroyed.

After 1 September 2019, following the serious fire at Notre-Dame, the cathedral's services were temporarily transferred to Saint-Germain.