Chapelle de Conflans, au confluent des archevêques

Charenton-le-Pont

Conflans owes its name to the confluence of the Seine and the Marne, which meet below. On this hillside a castle was raised from the 14th century, founded by Countess Mahaut d'Artois, which in the 17th century became the summer residence of the archbishops of Paris: for two centuries, the prelates of the largest diocese in France came here for the air of the banks of the Marne, while Benedictine nuns settled in the outbuildings from 1641. The Revolution broke up the estate, but in 1829 Archbishop de Quélen bought back its eastern part and, after the cholera epidemic of 1831, took in orphans there. It was then that a saint entered the scene: Madeleine-Sophie Barat, foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, canonised in 1925, took refuge at Conflans with her nuns and in 1841 bought back the former convent to establish a boarding school and novitiate there. Under her governance the present chapel was built, enlarged in 1867–1868 with a transept and a crypt. Having become in 1885 the chapel of the minor seminary of Paris, expelled by the laws of 1901–1904, bought back in 1929, it came close to disappearing before a restoration campaign (2000–2005) restored the brilliance of its painted vaults, frescoes and altars. The last consecrated witness to the Conflans of the archbishops, it keeps the memory of one of the great religious sites of eastern Paris.

Getting there : 7 rue de l'Archevêché / 2 rue du Séminaire-de-Conflans, Conflans district; metro line 8, Charenton-Écoles, about 600 m away; nearby viewpoint over the confluence of the Seine and the Marne.

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

Ambient sound