Beyond Notre-Dame: 12 Paris Churches You Must See at Least Once

Notre-Dame may be Paris’s most famous church — but it’s far from the only one worth stepping inside. In this video, I’m taking you beyond Notre-Dame to discover 12 remarkable Paris churches spanning almost 1,000 years of history. From medieval Gothic masterpieces to royal Baroque churches, 19th-century experiments in iron and concrete, extraordinary stained glass and the unmistakable domes of Sacré-Cœur, these churches show just how varied religious architecture in Paris can be. We’ll start with Saint-Germain-des-Prés, one of the oldest surviving churches in Paris, before moving chronologically through Saint-Séverin, Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Saint-Eustache, Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, Val-de-Grâce, La Madeleine, Sainte-Clotilde, Saint-Eugène–Sainte-Cécile, Saint-Augustin, Saint-Jean de Montmartre and finally Sacré-Cœur. Along the way, I’ll show you what makes each one worth visiting: Saint-Étienne-du-Mont’s unique rood screen, the immense proportions of Saint-Eustache, the royal history of Val-de-Grâce, the spectacular colors of Saint-Eugène, Sainte-Clotilde’s great Cavaillé-Coll organ, Saint-Jean de Montmartre’s revolutionary concrete construction, and much more. And before we begin, I’ll also explain why four famous monuments you might expect to see here — Sainte-Chapelle, the Panthéon, Saint-Sulpice and the Basilica of Saint-Denis — didn’t make this particular list. Whether you’re visiting Paris for the first time or think you already know the city, these are 12 Paris churches I believe are genuinely worth seeing at least once. Timeline / Chapters: 00:00 — Beyond Notre-Dame 00:58 — 4 Famous Churches That Aren’t on My List 02:37 — Saint-Germain-des-Prés — 1163 06:27 — Saint-Séverin — c.1230 10:19 — Saint-Étienne-du-Mont — 1626 14:19 — Saint-Eustache — 1637 19:36 — Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis — 1642 22:46 — Val-de-Grâce — 1667 26:29 — La Madeleine — 1845 30:30 — Sainte-Clotilde — 1857 36:02 — Saint-Eugène–Sainte-Cécile — 1855 39:09 — Saint-Augustin — 1868 42:01 — Saint-Jean de Montmartre — 1904 44:09 — Sacré-Cœur — 1919