Église Saint-Pierre de Montmartre

The Église Saint-Pierre de Montmartre stands on Montmartre Hill in Paris, beside the setting associated with Sacré-Cœur Basilica. This Roman Catholic church remains one of the city’s oldest survivors. Construction began in 1133 and ended in 1147, giving the building its Romanesque nave, lower aisles, choir, and apse. The church is Paris’s second-oldest surviving church.

It served Montmartre Abbey until the abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution, while periods of abandonment threatened its survival. Archaeological evidence places a church here in the sixth century, although tradition attributes its foundation to Saint Denis in the third. Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century restorations preserved the structure after those difficult years.

Inside, Romanesque and early Gothic columns carry acanthus leaves and stylised water lilies among the church’s distinctive details. The interior also holds a statue of Our Lady of Montmartre and a copy of Saint Peter. Joseph-François Parrocel contributed a painting, while the organ came from Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. That organ is classified as a national historic object.