Église Saint-Baudile et le tombeau de Foulques de Neuilly

Neuilly-sur-Marne

At the end of the 12th century, the parish priest of this village on the banks of the Marne became one of the most listened-to men in Christendom. Foulques de Neuilly (Fulk of Neuilly), a preacher of fiery eloquence and founder of the abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs in Paris, was charged by the pope with preaching the Fourth Crusade in 1199: medieval chroniclers relate that crowds flocked from afar to hear him, and tradition credits him with healings worked in the course of his sermons. It was he who, at the end of the 12th century, launched the building of his parish church, completed in 1202 — the very year of his death. Foulques was buried in the choir, where his tomb slab, destroyed in 1779, was replaced in 1900. The building he left is one of the very first Gothic churches raised in the Paris region, at the turning point between Romanesque and Gothic. It is dedicated to Saint Baudilus, a martyr beheaded at Nîmes at the end of the 3rd century for refusing to take part in pagan worship, whom tradition holds to be a patron of crusaders — a dedication perfectly suited to the crusading priest of Neuilly. In the 19th century, the facade received a sumptuous mosaic tympanum by Giandomenico Facchina, the mosaicist of the Opéra Garnier and of St Mark's in Venice; the stained glass was recreated in the 20th century by Jean-Jacques Gruber. A village church through which, for the space of a generation, blew the wind of the Crusades.

Getting there : Centre of Neuilly-sur-Marne, rue de l'Église. RER A or E, then bus 113 or 203. Occasional guided tours via Explore Paris; open for services. Coordinates: approach point in the town centre.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound