Voûte de l'abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Founded in the 6th century, the first Merovingian basilica prospered until the destruction of the turning of the First Millenium. A romanesque church is then rebuilt, as witnessed today by the porch tower and the nave. Around 1150, the church was endowed with a new chancel, manifesto of the first Gothic art, the elevation of which was modified in the seventeenth century by the campaigns of Maurist works. Affected as a saltpeter refinery during the French Revolution, the church was restored in 1820 by Hippolyte Godde, who rebuilt the axial chapel housing the grisailles of François-Joseph Heim. Between 1842 and 1870, the painters Hippolyte Flandrin and Alexandre Denuelle realized, under the direction of Victor Baltard, a rich decoration with wax on all the walls of the church.