Église Saint-Merri

Église Saint-Merri stands in Paris beside the Centre Pompidou, on the Right Bank. The church is dedicated to Saint Mederic, a seventh-century abbot and patron saint of the Right Bank since 884. Gothic façades surround floral carvings, vegetal details and whimsical gargoyles above the busy streets.

Saint-Pierre-des-Bois, an earlier chapel, marked the site where Saint Merri was buried around 700. Commercial growth brought rebuilding in the early thirteenth century and again during the sixteenth century under François I. Flamboyant Gothic forms meet Renaissance structure, while eighteenth-century changes introduced classical elements. The French Revolution damaged the building and turned it temporarily into a gunpowder factory before its return to religious use in 1795.

Inside, ornate pillars, bright replacement glazing and a Baroque choir frame the marble altar and gilded wooden sculptures. The Communion Chapel, built in 1743, holds a large painting by Charles Coypel, while the transept contains works by Noël Coypel and Joseph-Marie Vien. A fresco by Théodore Chassériau appears in the chapel of Saint-Marie-l’Égyptienne. One especially tangible survivor hangs in the bell tower: a Paris bell cast in 1331.