Saint Étienne du Mont Church Paris: A complete guide

Saint Étienne du Mont is one of the most beautiful churches in Paris, and resting place of St Genevieve, one of the patron saints of the city.

In this guide to St Étienne du Mont church I’ll point you in the direction of some of the wonderful architecture and features to admire, as well as looking back through its long, eventful history.

I also cover the basics including its location, how to get there and other things to see nearby.

Why Visit Saint Étienne du Mont?

The area around the summit of Montaigne Sainte- Geneviève has been the site of churches since the 6^th century.  King Clovis founded the church of SS Peter and Paul and the Abbey of St Genevieve there, and he was eventually buried there, along with his Queen Clotilde and St Genevieve.

St Genevieve was a patron saint of Paris who, according to tradition, helped save Paris from attack by Attila and his Hun army, who went on to besiege Orléans on the river Loire to the south-west of Paris.

The church became a popular pilgrimage site, but eventually proved too small to accommodate the growing congregation. In 1222 a church was begun on the site immediately adjacent to the Abbey of St Genevieve – the site of the present church of St Etienne du Mont.

Etienne is the French for Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and ‘du Mont’ means ‘of the hill’.

Little remains of this Gothic church. It was rebuilt between around 1492 and 1626, in a unique mixture of Flamboyant Gothic and Renaissance styles.

The Abbey church next door was replaced after 1744 by a larger church now known as the Panthéon.

Most of the relics of St Genevieve were destroyed in 1793, in the aftermath of the French Revolution.  Some fragmentary remains were preserved, and these are still venerated in the church, where you’ll see her tomb and a chapel dedicated to her.

Stop to look at the west front of the church – where the main entrance is located – before entering. It’s a remarkable sight, an almost haphazard hotch-potch of different including a Gothic rose window and a Renaissance doorway below.

The latter is similar to a Palladian portico, influenced by Classical Greek and Roman architecture, and the whole front of the church seems quite narrow, a result of the limited space available for the church. It’s quite an ensemble and I’ve always thought it has immense character and love it.

The most noticeable feature is the magnificent jubé, or rood loft, which separates the nave of the church from the chancel.  It fulfils the same function as wooden rood screens in medieval churches elsewhere in Europe, but this is very different in appearance.

It’s a stone bridge across the chancel, flanked by two spiral staircases and ornate Renaissance-era portals. The filigree stonework is incredibly intricate and detailed, and the portals are adorned with fine statuary, as shown above.

It’s also worth looking at the variety of architectural styles around the church. The Neoclassical arches and arcades of the nave date from the late 16^th or early 17^th century, and support a beautiful, elaborate late Flamboyant Gothic ceiling vault.

Further inside the church, you may well notice the narrow Gothic-style arches behind the high altar, which were built around 50 years before the nave.

The nearest Paris Metro stop to Saint Étienne du Mont is Cardinal Lemoine, on line 10. The station is around 250 metres’ walk from the church entrance on Place Sainte Geneviève.

The church is also around 300 metres from the Luxembourg stop on RER line B.

Otherwise, Jussieu and Place Monge on line 7 are a 5-10 minute walk away.

The Panthéon is the most obvious place to visit near Saint Étienne du Mont. This monumental church was intended to house the relics of St Genevieve, but it was decided to use it as the burial place of great French people.

Writers Voltaire and Rousseau are two of the earliest figures to be interred, and many more writers, scientists, politicians, war heroes and more have subsequently been buried there.

While visiting, be sure to climb the dome, which offers a superb view over Saint Étienne du Mont and also commands one of the best Eiffel Tower views in Paris.

It’s only a 5-minute walk down Rue Soufflot to the Jardin du Luxembourg, a gorgeous park laid out around the Palais du Luxembourg, which is home to the French Senate.

It’s one of the most beautiful gardens in Paris, with attractions ranging from the wooden sail boats in the central pond to the ornate Medici fountain and one of the oldest carousels in Paris for the kids to enjoy.

You can walk down the Boulevard Saint-Michel to the Sorbonne, the heart of the University of Paris, or further down until the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages.

Alternatively, if you wish to see more Parisian churches, you could head towards Saint-Sulpice and Saint Germain des Prés in one direction, or Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet, St Julien le Pauvre and Saint Severin towards the river Seine and Notre Dame.