Saint-Germain-des-Prés

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This is the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés /sɛ̃ ʒɛʁmɛ̃ de pʁe/, the oldest church in Paris. It is named after Saint Germain, who was buried at this spot, at the western end of the Latin Quarter some 1500 years ago, in the year 576. There has been some sort of religious edifice at this location since several years prior to that.

The current church has been modified and renovated several times, but much of it still has the Middle-Ages look that it had when the current church was built (around the 12th century). It is still a functioning church today. Some ruins date from much, much earlier.

You’re looking northeast in this photo. The street passing in front of the church in the foreground is the boulevard Saint-Germain /bulvaʁ sɛ̃ ʒɛʁmɛ̃/, which enters the Latin Quarter off to the right.

Photographed in the Summer of 1999.