Saint-Sulpice
as Pagan Temple?
The Church of Saint-Sulpice, it is said, has
the most eccentric history of any building in Paris. Built over
the ruins of an ancient temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis, the
church possesses an architectural footprint matching that of Notre
Dame within inches.
(Chapter Nineteen, p. 88)
Precisely how
Brown measures the level of a building's 'eccentric history' is
unclear, but his statement that Saint-Sulpice is built over the
ruins of a temple of Isis is more of his fantasy.
The current
church was begun in 1646 by its priest, Jean-Jacques Olier as a
replacement for the greatly dilapidated Twelfth Century original.
The foundations of this original medieval church have been found
under the current building, but no 'temple to the Egyptian goddess
Isis' has been found under or even near Saint-Sulpice. A sign to
this effect has now been erected by the church's custodians since,
apparently, they have become weary of Da Vinci Code-reading
tourists asking them about the non-existent 'buried temple'.
Saint-Sulpice
shares a general layout, style and size with a great many other
churches, but it is wrong to say it matches Notre Dame's 'architectural
footprint' within inches. The two churches are similar in size,
but Notre Dame is actually larger by a factor of several metres.
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