When you enter the church, you first step down into a tiny wooden entryway
with four doors--two opening onto the nave and two leading left and right
which direct you towards the two side aisles. The door leading to the left is
the one that is usually open. Going through it, you pass by the
door of the sacristy and and find yourself at the west end of the north aisle.
From this point, you can look out through the northern nave arcade and get a wide
view across the interior of the church, with glimpses of the choir and the wooden
iconostasis. In overall appearance, the church is small, sturdy-looking, and rather plain.
Although it is not brightly lit, there is more illumination here than at Notre Dame.
A good bit of light comes in from the windows in the upper nave wall.
High on the west wall above the door of the sacristy is an
oil painting after Bronzino depicting
St. Julien the Hospitaller as an old man welcoming a traveler who has just
arrived by boat at his hospice. This painting once hung in the
chapel of the north aisle. In the north wall near the sacristy is the side door
you saw earlier which leads out into the Square Viviani, and to the right of it
is an alabaster bénitier (holy water basin) in the shape of a scallop shell.
The scallop shell was a symbol of the Compostela pilgrimage. Medieval pilgrims
wore badges made in the shape of scallop shells and also brought real shells back
with them from Spain. The shell is a common motif used in the decor of medieval
churches. This bénitier is is supported by a winged cherub's head.
The north aisle is thought to have been built during the first quarter of the 13th
century, and is covered by quadripartite rib vaults with keystones in the shape of
small rosettes. The ribs are ornamented with roll moldings. The vaults of the north
aisle are all original, in contrast to those of the south aisle, which were rebuilt
in the 19th century.
Along the exterior wall, the north aisle vaults are supported by alternating clusters of five
and three detached colonnettes with foliage and crocket capitals.
The bases
of the colonnettes are ornamented at the corners with griffes (literal translation, "claws";
actually carvings in the shape of curled leaf-shapes).To the left of the first group of colonnettes hangs a modern icon depicting St. George slaying the dragon, by V. Zevtchinsky (1906-1922), one of many Melkite icons you will see in the church. Further to the right is a small 14th-century relief of the crucifixion with the Virgin, St. John, and two donors. This relief once decorated the front of the high altar of St. Julien, and is thought to have originally come from the chapel of the Hôtel Dieu. The two donors are said to be Oudart de Mocreux and his wife. Mocreux was a money changer who provided funds for rebuilding the chapel of the Hôtel Dieu in 1380. He died in 1385. Below the relief is a rectangular tombstone with an inscription. This is all that is left of the monument of Baron Robert Auget de Montyon (1733-1820), a benefactor of the old Hôtel Dieu, where his tomb was once located. As you can see in this old postcard, a large marble statue of Montyon carved by the sculptor François Joseph Bosio used to stand in this spot on the north aisle, but it has now been taken to the Louvre. The stone which rests against the wall today once lay flat at the foot of the statue's base. 
In the next bay of the north aisle is a large and very ornate 17th-century
wrought-iron lutrin, or music stand, on a stone base.
This interesting piece of furniture came from the
church of the hospital of Bicêtre, which was demolished in 1920.
The north aisle terminates with a chapel consisting of a rectangular bay and a
small apse, both with four-part vaults, which align with the double bay of the
choir and communicate with it through an arcade on the right. The apse and its
adjacent bay are slightly narrower than the aisle. At the back of the apse are traces of the walled-up door seen in the
exterior photo of the northern apse. Notice
how the left-hand wall and colonnettes of the chapel lean outward at the top.
This tilting was also visible on the northern exterior
of the church.The chapel of the north aisle was referred to as the Chapel of St. Augustine in older sources, a name which probably dates from the 19th century, when St. Julien was used as a chapel by the Augustinian Sisters who nursed the patients at the Hôtel Dieu. An altar with a statue of St. Augustine used to stand here, and the nuns entered the church through the doorway in the apse, which still has a 17th century bénitier next to it. The present name for the chapel is the Chapel of St. Joseph, and the large framed icon by Mme. Eltchaninoff depicts St. Joseph holding the Christ Child on his shoulder. Beneath the icon sits a grand piano, a reminder of the concerts that are often held here during the week. (I attended a candlelight concert by the group Mora Vocis, and the acoustics here are wonderful). Just above the right-hand side of the piano you can see a dark, squarish niche in the wall. This is a 13th century piscina, a small basin built into the wall of the chapel where the vessels used for Holy Communion were washed. |
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St. Julien le Pauvre url: http://www.people.ku.edu/~asnow/ Webmaster: A. Snow This site last updated 03/21/2006. |
