Description of the attraction
The Church of Saint-Augustin (Saint Augustine) is a Catholic church located between Boulevard Malserbes and Avenue César Coeur. The small square in front of the church is called Saint-Augustin.
The appearance of the temple here was a direct consequence of the urban planning reforms of the active prefect of Paris, Baron Haussmann. Large-scale housing construction in the area in the second half of the 19th century also required a new church. It was erected by Victor Baltar, architect of Le Halle.
The task was not easy: the site chosen for the church turned out to be elongated and rather narrow. Baltar boldly applied a technology that was new for that time: a solid metal frame, then lined with stone, became the basis of the 80-meter-high building. This made it possible to abandon the usual buttresses that required additional space.
The church is made in an eclectic style, using elements of Romanesque and Byzantine architecture. The facade is decorated with a huge rose window, above the church gates there is a bas-relief depicting Christ and His twelve apostles.
The temple is dedicated to Saint Augustine - the great Christian philosopher, preacher, theologian of the IV-V centuries. This is one of the Fathers of the Christian Church, deeply revered both in Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In his autobiographical work Confessions, he describes how, having passed through heresies, he came to know God. St. Augustine developed an amazingly profound teaching about the relationship between God and man, about the freedom of human will and divine predestination, about time and space.
In the square in front of the Church of St. Augustine, in 1896, the second equestrian monument to Jeanne d'Arc in Paris was erected by the sculptor Jean Dubois. The sculpture depicts the Maid of Orleans with a sword in her right hand, the warrior's eyes are raised to the sky. In terms of its artistic merit, the monument significantly surpasses its gilded counterpart from the Pyramids Square.
The architecture of the church, its interior design makes a strong impression. It was here that the renowned African explorer Charles de Foucault experienced an overwhelming experience of conversion and profound spiritual transformation.
