★★★★★ 5.0
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Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Cross of Ménilmontant
97 meters long and perched on one of Paris's steepest slopes, this towering church required 55 monumental stone steps just to reach its front door. You're standing before Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix de Ménilmontant, the third-longest church in all of Paris, where architect Louis-Jean-Antoine Héret pulled off an engineering marvel between 1863 and 1880. Look up at that soaring bell tower... it stretches 78 meters into the sky, while inside, Héret left the metal framework completely exposed in the nave and choir as decoration, creating an industrial-meets-sacred aesthetic decades ahead of its time. This Gothic-Romanesque hybrid combines the best of both worlds, but it's the church's dark political history that really sets it apart. In 1871, during the Paris Commune, revolutionary leaders seized this sacred space and turned it into their political headquarters. Right here on May 6th, they voted by acclamation to execute Georges Darboy, the Archbishop of Paris, along with other hostages. The irony wasn't lost on anyone... a house of God becoming the site where death sentences were pronounced. Today, as you climb those 55 steps, you're literally rising above the street level of Place Maurice Chevalier below, entering a space where prayer and politics once collided in the most dramatic way possible.
Did You Know?
- The Church of Our Lady of the Cross of Ménilmontant is one of the largest churches in Paris, stretching 97 meters in length and featuring a soaring 78-meter bell tower—making it the third-longest and one of the most voluminous churches in the city, a surprising fact for a neighborhood church far from the city center.
- During the Paris Commune of 1871, the church was temporarily closed and transformed into a political meeting hall; it was here that the leaders of the Commune controversially voted to execute Archbishop Georges Darboy and other hostages, marking a dark and pivotal moment in both the church’s and Paris’s history.
- The church’s dramatic location atop a steep hill means visitors must climb a grand stairway of 55 steps to reach its entrance, creating a striking approach that feels almost like a pilgrimage—a hidden feature that adds to the sense of awe and makes a visit memorable for families and children exploring Paris’s lesser-known landmarks.