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Basilica of Sacré C?ur. Dedicated to the Sacred Heart, the Basilica is visible all over Paris.
The Basilica of the Sacré Coeur ( Sacred Heart) is a Parisian Roman Catholic church and landmark, crowning the butte Montmartre ('Montmartre hill'), the highest point in Paris.
The nineteenth century church was designed by the architect Paul Abadie (who died in 1884, when only the foundations had been laid) in the Romano-Byzantine architectural style. Its foundation stone was laid in 1875, and was built with the direct involvement of the Third French Republic to mark the foundation of the new French state whose constitutional laws were enacted that year. It also was intended as a public monument to mark the memory of the many French citizens who lost their lives in the Franco-Prussian War and its aftermath, the Commune of 1871. However it was not completed until 1914 and not officially opened for worship until 1919 after the end of the First World War, which ironically was seen by many French people as revenge for Prussia's¹ defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War.
The site is traditionally associated with the beheading of the city's patron, Saint DenisSaint Denis also known as Denys Dionysius or Dennis is a Christian saint, bishop of Paris, martyr, and a patron saint of France. He died around 250. Gregory of Tours simply states of Denis that he was bishop of the Parisii and was martyred by being behead, in the 3rd century. Legend says that upon being slain, the bishop Denis picked up his severed head and carried it several miles to the north where the city of Saint Denis stands today.
More recently, during the Commune of 1871, hundreds of Communards hid in the chalk mines of the butte Montmartre, and were forever imprisoned inside when the government troops dynamited the exits.
The basilica was paid for by national subscription. Its iconography is distinctly nationalistic: the triple-arched portico is surmounted by two bronze equestrian statues of France's national saints, Joan of ArcJoan of Arc ( January 6, 1412 May 30, 1431) (also Jeanne d'Arc Jehanne la Pucelle in French, and Maid of Orleans is a national heroine of France and saint of the Catholic Church. During the Hundred Years' War she led the French against the English and was and King Saint Louis IXEl Greco in the 16th Century. King Louis IX of France or Saint Louis ( April 25, 1214/ 1215 August 25, 1270) was King of France from 1226 to 1270. A member of the Capetian dynasty, he was born at Poissy, France, the son of King Louis VIII and Blanche of C (by H. Lefebvre). Even the great bell, the Savoyarde, has a nationalist program, SavoyThis article is about the historical region of Savoy. For other uses, see Savoy (disambiguation Savoy (Italian Savoia, French Savoie is a region of western Europe that emerged, along with the free communes of Switzerland, from the collapse of the Frankish having been attached to France as recently as 1860. Cast in Annecy in 1895, it is one of the world's heaviest bells, at 19 tons.
Sacré C?ur is built of Château-Landon (Seine-et-Marne) stone, a frost-resistant travertineTravertine is a white concretionary form of calcium carbonate that is usually hard and semicrystalline. It is deposited from the water of mineral springs (especially hot springs) or streams holding lime in solution. Extensive deposits exist at Tivoli, Ita that constantly weathers out its calciteThe mineral calcite is a carbonate of calcium corresponding to the formula CaCO and is one of the most widely distributed minerals on the Earth's surface. It is a common constituent of sedimentary rocks, limestone in particular. It also occurs as a vein m, so that it bleaches with age to a chalky whiteness.
Since 18851885 is a common year starting on Thursday (click on link for calendar) Events January January 4 The first successful appendectomy is performed (Dr. William Grant; patient was Mary Gartside). January 20 L. Thompson patents the roller coaster. January 26 T, when it was partially built, the Blessed SacramentThe Blessed Sacrament is a devotional name used by Roman Catholics to refer to a consecrated host that is, a communion wafer which Catholics believe has actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ at the moment of the Consecration during the Liturg (a consecrated host which Catholics believe is turned into the body and blood of Jesus Christ during a Mass) has been continually on display in a monstrance above the high altar. Perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has continued uninterrupted in the Basilica since 1885.
The mosaic of Christ in Majesty in the apse is one of the world's largest.
The doctrine of the Sacred Heart was promulgated by Pope Pius IX in 1856, at the urgent entreaties of the French bishops.