Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ ʒɛʁvɛ sɛ̃ pʁɔtɛ]) is a Roman Catholic parish church located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, on Place Saint-Gervais in the Marais district, east of City Hall (Hôtel de Ville).
[2] While the interior of the church was largely Gothic, the facade was built in an original new style, the French Baroque, on a plan by architect Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626).
On one side of the church, the home of the celebrated harpsichordists, organists, and composers still stands, with a plaque commemorating the Couperins' tenure.
On 29 March 1918, a German shell, fired by the long-range "Paris Gun", fell on the church, killing 91 people and wounding 68 others; the explosion collapsed the roof when a Good Friday service was in progress.
[5] In 1975 the church became the headquarters of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem, founded in that same year by Père Pierre-Marie Delfieu with the authorisation of the then Archbishop of Paris, François Marty.
The order has founded several other communities in France, at Mont St. Michel, Vezelay, and Magdala Sologne and elsewhere in Europe, in Florence, Brussels, Cologne, Warsaw, and Montreal.
Another series of six windows by Claude Courageux was added in the early 2000s in the upper level of the church, in the south nave, the transept and the choir, replacing those destroyed over the centuries.
While the nave of the church was late or flamboyant gothic, the facade introduced an entirely new classical style, which opened the way for the French Baroque.
The ground floor featured three bays with pairs of columns with capitals of the simplest Doric order, with a classical pediment.
The wooden choir stalls (16th–17th century), from the reigns of François I and Henri II, are richly carved with scenes of daily life, the different professions, and grotesque animals.
[4] The chapel of the Virgin, at the back of the church, has a dramatic late gothic vaulted ceiling, featuring a hanging crown of stone 2.5 meters in diameter, and abstract designs resembling flames.
The chapel has some of the oldest stained glass windows in the flamboyant gothic style, made by Jean Chastellain in 1517, illustrating the life of the Virgin Mary.