Here is a view of the south aisle looking eastward towards the chapel in its apse. This aisle, like
its northern counterpart, is covered by four-part
rib vaults, but the vaults here were rebuilt in the 19th century. some of the cells
of the new vaults show a few traces of water damage, particularly in one place where a
stovepipe once passed through the vault. (Old photos show that cast-iron stoves
once stood between the columns in the middle of both nave arcades). The
southern vaults used to have rosette keystones like those on the north, but they have been
removed.
The south aisle has clusters of three colonnettes supporting the vaults along the
exterior wall, as opposed to the alternating clusters of three and five on the
north aisle. The capitals of these colonnettes
are very similar to those on the north, but their bases
are round and do not have griffes.
Beneath the window of the third bay hangs a 15th-century tombstone belonging to
Henri Rousseau, lawyer of Parlement and Lord of Chaillot and Compans, who died
on December 9, 1445. Rousseau paid to have three masses per week
said for the good of his soul in the Chapel of St. Louis of the
old Hôtel Dieu where this stone was once located. The carving on the stone
shows Rousseau sitting up in his coffin wrapped in a shroud and praying to Christ on the
cross. The text of the prayer and a rather detailed
statement explaining the arrangement between the deceased and the Hôtel Dieu are carved
in Gothic letters on a scroll and on the coffin, and the family coats of arms
adorn the corners. You can see that the upper right corner of the stone was broken
off and replaced. Some of the text of the Latin prayer is missing. This damage is
thought to have occurred during the French Revolution, when the stone was taken down
and used as a sewer cover. It was later rescued and placed here.
Underneath the window, just before you reach the entrance to the small chapel in the apse, stands a wooden statue
of the Virgin and Child. The statue dates from the 17th
century, and some historians, including Armand Le Brun, believe that it may have originally
come from the now-demolished Chapel of St. Blaise and St. Louis,
former seat of the Confrerie of the Masons and Carpenters, which once stood just south of
St. Julien. Recently, however, I learned of another
theory regarding the statue's origins. The Confrerie of Notre Dame des Vertus,
founded in the early 17th century, was also based at St. Julien, and occupied a
house adjoining the present-day sacristy. This confrerie had ties to the church and
statue of Notre Dame des Vertus at Aubervilliers, which inspired a famous pilgrimage of the 17th and 18th
centuries. The confrerie was dedicated to the Virgin, so according to this theory, the statue
at St. Julien might have originally belonged to them. Interestingly, the abbé of
the church at Aubervilliers chose to use the statue at St. Julien as a model when
he commissioned a replacement for the original statue of Notre Dame des Vertus,
which was destroyed during the Revolution. (Many thanks to Denise Homerin,
who first told me of the statue at Aubervilliers and kindly gave me a copy of her
report, "La Statue de Notre Dame des Vertus a Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre" from which
the information above is derived. (A Quicktime
virtual tour showing the interior of the Church of Notre Dame des Vertus and the statue
and an article can be found on
the City of Aubervilliers website).
The chapel of the south aisle was at one time called the Chapel of the Virgin, and the statue of the Virgin and Child once stood on its altar but today the statue is located on the aisle. The chapel itself has been renamed the Chapelle du Saint Sacrement (Chapel of the Holy Sacrament) and a sign bearing that name hangs on the wall between the two small windows of the double bay. Take a closer look behind the statue of the Virgin and you will notice that she appears to be standing in front of an angled niche, which is the size and shape of a small door. The bell tower is located on the south aisle just past this window, and there is a spiral staircase within the tower and the thickness of the south wall of the church. Although I have no way to test this theory, I think it's possible that this niche was once an entrance to the tower which has been blocked up. (There is also an outside entrance on the west side of the tower). According to a number of sources there is an inscription on the bell hanging within, which gives the date of the bell as 1640 and its name as "Marie". If my theory is correct, the statue of the Virgin Mary stands guard at the entrance to the tower where the bell bearing her name still hangs. 
The two windows on the south wall of the chapel are very deep. The wall
here is thicker for added support. There is an exceptionally large
buttress on the exterior wall just past these windows, and the bell
tower on the south aisle also serves as a buttress. These strong
supports, along with the compound piers at the corners of this bay
were intended to carry the weight of a large bell tower, which
was never completed.
The Chapelle du Saint Sacrement ends with a semicircular apse
with a four-part vault. The apse has a single small window with an altar
beneath it.
Turn around and look towards the west end of the south aisle.
Above the wood cabinets are traces of the
walleded-up window that you saw outside in the parvis,
next to the old well which used to be inside the church. It is thought that the
well may have originally been used to supply water for baptisms, and even after
this wall was built, shutting the well on the outside, the tradition of performing
baptisms in this spot was continued. Old photographs taken around the early 1900's
show a baptistery with a railing around it used to be located here beneath the
walled window.A door near the cabinets leads outside to the area south of the church. This area is normally closed to the public, but I received permission to photograph there during my visit in 2001. Click on the link at the bottom of the page to visit the southern exterior. |
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St. Julien le Pauvre url: http://www.people.ku.edu/~asnow/ Webmaster: A. Snow This site last updated 04/17/2006. |
