Eglise Saint Roch is a late Baroque style church in Paris, whose foundation stone was personally laid by Sun King Louis XIV (in 1653).
The foundation stone was laid down by (the future) King Louis XIV, in fact, together with his mother, Anne of Austria.
Construction work on the church continued for the period 1653-1722 from the original plans, as drawn by Jacques Le Mercier.
PHOTO: A view to the facade of the Saint Roch church from Rue Saint-Honoré.
PHOTO: The statue on the left side of the church facade is of Saint Honoré. The 1873 artwork is by Eugène-Antoine Aizel, whose other works in Paris include “L’Idylle” within Palais Garnier.
The reason why construction work on the building took so long was because, due to lack of funds, work on the church was halted in 1660…
..and only continued in 1701, when architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart took leadership of the project.
Work on the church advanced, again due to lack of funds, slowly until 1719…
…when one of the most famous economists in history, John Law, gave a big enough contribution to complete the building, which finally happened in 1722.
A lot of artwork was added to the church in 1756, with participating masters including such names as…
- Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, who painted a piece called “Ascension” to the church’s dome, and
- Étienne Maurice Falconet (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Étienne_Maurice_Falconet), who sculpted a Virgin Mary themed work to the church altar section (inspired by the sculptures at the Saint Paul’s Cathedral in Rome, Italy).
When you visit the church, also notice the church organ, a masterpiece by Aristide Cavaille-Coll (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristide_Cavaillé-Coll) in 1842.
…as the French Revolution royalists brought the battle to the church stairs.
In terms of churches in Paris, Saint-Roch is mostly known as artists’ church, with many high-profile artist funerals having taken place here.