Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux, Baroque parish church in Le Marais, Paris, France.
Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux is a Baroque church located in the 4th arrondissement's Marais neighborhood, distinguished by classical columns and decorative carved reliefs throughout its spaces. The interior features bright white walls, clear glass windows, and colored stained glass installed in 1946, creating layers of light that enhance the church's open and welcoming character.
The first church was built in 1258 for the Servites, whose white mantles gave the site its name. After the order was dissolved in 1274, the monastery passed to the Guillemites, then to the Benedictines of Saint-Maur in 1618. The present church was rebuilt from 1685 to 1690 to plans by Charles Duval, with Michel Le Tellier laying the first stone. In 1863 Victor Baltard added a bay and moved the 1705 facade of Saint-Éloi-des-Barnabites here.
The name comes from the white mantles of the Servite order, called Blancs-Manteaux, who founded the first church in 1258; the neighbouring rue des Guillemites recalls the Guillemite monks who followed them. The carved wooden pulpit, made in Bavaria in 1749 in rococo style, has a stairway decorated with marquetry medallions of New Testament scenes and is topped by a sculpture of the Archangel Michael overthrowing the Devil.
The main entrance is at the south end on Rue des Blancs-Manteaux; a secondary entrance opens at the north end, 53 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois. The church runs along the east side of the Square Charles-Victor-Langlois, which borders its eastern flank.
The south facade was not built for this church: it was made in 1705 by Cartaud for the Barnabite church of Saint-Éloi on the Île de la Cité, dismantled when the Boulevard du Palais was cut through, and re-erected here stone by stone by Victor Baltard in 1863. The monastery fountain of 1719 was likewise moved and remounted against the east wall in 1929.
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