Sainte Jeanne d'Arc

18, rue de la Chapelle , 75018 Paris

On September 6, 1914, in his homily delivered in the Church of Saint-Denys de la Chapelle, Father Margand proposed to make a solemn commitment to raise a basilica dedicated to Joan of Arc if Paris was not affected by the German armies. On the same day, the German advance was halted: it was the beginning of the Battle of the Marne. In 1926, a competition was launched by the Diocese of Paris for the construction of a church in honour of Joan of Arc, alongside the Church of Saint-Denys de la Chapelle The first stone was laid and blessed by Cardinal Dubois on June 7, 1929, and work began in 1930. From the beginning of the work, the work encounters an unforeseen difficulty which is the presence of underground cavities. Nevertheless, on May 12, 1935, Cardinal Verdier blessed the basilica and opened it to worship. But the work was then halted and not resumed until March 1955, because the parish school behind the church had to be destroyed and rebuilt. Despite a collection launched throughout France, Closson's initial project proved to be far too expensive and needed to be scaled back. The design of a new project was entrusted to the architect Pierre Isnard, who received a building permit on December 22, 1959. It was not until 1964 that construction was completed, the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the wish and the victory of the Marne. The basilica was consecrated by Cardinal Feltin on May 10, 1964. Masses with organ Sunday at 11 AM Photo of the organ: Vincent Hildebrandt

E6 The organ comes from the nearby Church of St Denys de la Chapelle. It was built in 1838 by John Abbey (10 stops) and had a Renaissance style buffet. In 1901, Abbey increased its composition to 14 stops. In 1910, the dilapidated state of the tribune forced its transfer to a side gallery. In 1928, the dilapidated condition of the building forced its dismantling. The organ was then stored in a hangar in the city of Paris. The organ was reassembled in the new church of St. Joan of Arc in 1946. It then replaced an instrument of which little is known. Probably Beuchet was in charge of the reassembly work. He took the opportunity to remove the Renaissance buffet and added 2 stops. In 1962, the instrument was moved to the tribune and two stops were changed. Almost half of the pipes date still to Abbey.