Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Paris

Notre-Dame-des-Champs is a Catholic church located at 91 Boulevard du Montparnasse, at the southern edge of the 6th arrondissement of Paris.

The church was later made into a priory by the Benedictine monks of Marmoutier Abbey, renaming it Notre-Dame-des-Champs in honor of Our Lady of the Fields.

The tympanum over the central portal, facing Boulevard du Montparnasse, is decorated with bas-relief depicting the Virgin Mary and the Infant Christ, sculpted by Gabriel-Jules Thomas (1824-1904).

Other works by Thomas are found in the Cour-Carré of the Louvre Museum and his statue of "Frankfurt" made for the facade of the Musée d'Orsay, when it was a railway station.

The columns are decorated with classical capitals of the ionic order, and continue upwards to support the rounded double arches of the vault.

the walls of the nave and choir have rows of large windows on the lower and second level, which fill the church with abundant light.

The most notable works of art within the church are a series of twenty-two paintings above the galleries in the nave and the choir, depicting the life of the Virgin Mary by the artist Joseph Aubert (1849-r1924).

He devoted twenty-six years to the series, and traveled to Palestine during the project to carry out enthnographic research, particularly to study the costumes and daily life of women.

The first convent church, destroyed during the French Revolution