Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Sacré-Cœur: Or, The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris

Constructed from 1855 to 1914, it stands at the top of MontMarte, the highest point in Paris.


he inspiration for Sacré Cœur's design originated on 4 September 1870, the day of the proclamation of the Third Republic, with a speech by Bishop Fournier attributing the defeat of French troops during the Franco-Prussian War to a divine punishment after "a century of moral decline" since the French Revolution, in the wake of the division in French society that arose in the decades following that revolution, between devout Catholics and legitimist royalists on one side,[4] and democrats, secularists, socialists, and radicals on the other. This schism in the French social order became particularly pronounced after the 1870 withdrawal of the French military garrison protecting the Vatican in Rome to the front of the Franco-Prussian War by Napoleon III,[5] the secular uprising of the Paris Commune of 1870-1871, and the subsequent 1871 defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War.
Though today the basilica is asserted[6][when?] to be dedicated in honor of the 58,000 who lost their lives during the war, the decree of the Assemblée nationale 24 July 1873, responding to a request by the archbishop of Paris and voting its construction, specifies that it is to "expiate the crimes of the Commune."[7] Montmartre had been the site of the Commune's first insurrection, and the Communards had executed Georges Darboy, Archbishop of Paris, who became a martyr for the resurgent Catholic Church. His successor Guibert, climbing the Butte Montmartre in October 1872, was reported to have had a vision as clouds dispersed over the panorama: "It is here, it is here where the martyrs are,[8] it is here that the Sacred Heart must reign so that it can beckon all to come."[9]


As for me, it is a must visit site in Paris.   This is where Hitler stood on June 23, 1940 and declared that "Paris is mine."


It wasn't for long.  Funny, he was only in Paris for a day.  And he never returned.

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