Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Gothic church in Latin Quarter, France
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont is a church in Paris's Latin Quarter combining flamboyant Gothic and Renaissance styles. The interior displays detailed stone carvings, spiral staircases, and stained glass from the 16th century.
A 13th-century parish church was replaced from 1492, when the Génovéfain monks gave land; the choir was finished in 1537 and the nave vaulted in 1584. Marguerite de Valois laid the façade's first stone in 1610 with a personal gift of 3,000 livres, and Jean-François de Gondi consecrated the church on 25 February 1626. Victor Baltard restored it between 1865 and 1868.
The shrine of Saint Geneviève, patron saint of Paris, stands in the church but has been empty of relics since the French Revolution. Each year until the 18th century a procession carried it to Notre-Dame and back. A plaque near the shrine recalls Parisians praying there during the 1914 Battle of the Marne.
The church sits near Metro stations Luxembourg and Cardinal Lemoine for easy access. Visitors can move through the interior at their own pace to view the architectural details and stonework from different angles.
The building holds one of France's few surviving stone rood screens, an ornate bridge connecting the nave and choir areas. This carved network is a rare medieval and Renaissance remnant found in few other places.
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