Église du Vieux Saint-Ouen

Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine

The whole town of Saint-Ouen is contained in the story attached to this little church. According to tradition, Saint Ouen, counsellor and treasurer to King Dagobert who became Bishop of Rouen, died in 686 (683 according to some sources) in the royal villa of Clippiacum, on the heights above the Seine. His body, displayed on the spot before being solemnly carried back to Rouen, left the place a precious relic: a finger of the saint, kept in the sanctuary raised on the very spot of his death. Very soon, miracles drew pilgrims, a village formed around the chapel and took the name of the holy bishop: Saint-Ouen was born. A chapel is attested as early as 832 by Hilduin, Abbot of Saint-Denis. In the 12th century, the faithful built the present church: the choir, dated to around 1140–1160, keeps its vaults and its acanthus-leaf capitals, between late Romanesque and early Gothic. Roughly handled during the Wars of Religion in 1567, the church then received a keystone bearing the arms of the Condés and a facade completed under Henri IV. Listed as early as 1933 and restored in the 1970s, it remains a living parish. In a town famous for its flea market and its docks, this discreet vessel on the rue du Planty recalls that everything began, thirteen centuries ago, at the deathbed of a Merovingian saint on the banks of the Seine.

Getting there : 4 rue du Planty, 93400 Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine; metro line 13, Garibaldi station, about 500 m away. Approximate coordinates set on the rue du Planty; open notably for Sunday mass.

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

Ambient sound