Like many tourists, I first came across St. Julien le Pauvre after visiting
Notre Dame. This small medieval church stands on the Left Bank of the Seine just across
from the Cathedral, and it can easily be
seen from the south tower (which is where I was standing when I
took this picture). At the time, I knew only a few facts about
St. Julien's history that I had gleaned from Paris guidebooks. It was only after I did more research
that I truly began to appreciate its architecture and history. Built by Clunesian monks
between 1170 and 1240, the church was located in the midst of the Latin Quarter, amd
during the 13th and 14th centuries it served as both a house of worship and a meeting place
for the faculty and students of the University of Paris.
Here is the eastern end of St. Julien, the oldest and best preserved part
of the church, completed around the end of the 12th century. The three apses are ornamented
by simple moldings and Romanesque-style cornices. You can get here by passing
through a small gate located on the rue du Fouarre. Some of the ancient colleges of the
University of Paris were once located on this street, and it got its name
from the fact that the students would sit out-of-doors here upon bundles of straw to hear
lectures. ("Fouarre" is an old word for fodder or straw). A popular legend
says that the poet Dante once lodged and attended classes in the rue du Fouarre and
prayed at St. Julien, but no one knows for sure if this is true. That did not stop
19th-century writers from calling the area surrounding St. Julien as the pourpris
de Dante (enclosure of Dante).
To the right just inside the entrance gate on the rue du Fouarre stands a small
cast-iron drinking fountain. Although it is not old compared to the
church, this little fountain is also historic in its way. During the 19th century a
philanthropic Englishman named Richard Wallace paid for the installation of many
such drinking fountains in Paris to provide sources of safe drinking water in public
places. This one is an example of the smallest and simplest type of
Wallace fountain, with a push-button mechanism to dispense the water. A
larger, more elaborate model ornamented with four goddess figures supporting a
globe can be seen not far away, just outside the Shakespeare and Company bookstore
on the rue de la Bucherie. (To learn more about Wallace fountains and to see
pictures of the different styles,
visit this website).
This old well, which stands just east of the main apse, piqued my curiosity
when I first saw it in 1999. Many sources, among them the Dictionnaire Historique des Rues de Paris by
Jacques Hillairet, describe a Miraculous Well which was located near the small northern apse of St. Julien. For a
while I thought this might be the one, even though the location was wrong. But eventually I found a photograph
in Philippe Lefrançois' Paris à Travers les Siècles which shows that this well used
to be set into the wall of an old stone building that stood here as late as the 1950's. At some point the building was
demolished, but the well and a portion of the surrounding wall was preserved.
Old plans of the quarter indicate that the well stands on the spot where
the medieval colleges (called "Nations") of Normandy and France were located.
The present bell tower on the south side of St. Julien can only be seen from the east or
the south. It is so short that the church roof blocks it from view
on the west and north, and many people who visit the church never
see it at all. In fact, some guidebooks even say that the church has no bell
tower, yet here it is. The south side of St. Julien is now blocked off by a fence
and a wall so you can no longer walk around the church to get a better view.
Looking over the top of the fence, you can just see the pointed roof of the tower
and a tiny lancet window on the side facing you. The tower and south side of the
church will be explored more thoroughly
in a later part of the tour.
As you turn back towards the north, have a closer look
at the small apse of the north aisle. This apse does not extend quite as far to the
east as its southern counterpart. (If you take a look at the
plan of St. Julien, you can see this for yourself).
The north aisle was deliberately built this way in order to preserve
the famous Miraculous Well located just outside the apse. On the curved wall you
can see the traces of a door that was created to provide access to the well.
According to legend, its water could cure all kinds of illnesses, and at first the Priory of St.
Julien charged a fee for it. Later on, the monks decided to
give the water away for free, and its healing properties mysteriously vanished. The
Miraculous Well was covered with a square white paving stone and the door in the apse was walled up.
You can see the white stone in the lower left corner of this old postcard.I searched for this paving stone, but unfortunately it is no longer there. The square panels next to the apse wall that you can see in this photo are covers for recessed lighting. A small iron grating has been set set flush with the pavement a few steps from the walled door and I suspect that this might be close to where the old well was located. I believe that the wedge of stone leaning up against the wall to the right of the door marks the location of a buttress which has been removed. There is a break in the stone molding that runs along the wall, which suggests that a buttress once stood here. In the background of the photo, you can see an ancient tree which will be described in the next section of the tour. |
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St. Julien le Pauvre url: http://www.people.ku.edu/~asnow/ Webmaster: A. Snow This site last updated 03/09/2006. |
