Sacré-Cœur Basilica

The basilica was decided on after the defeat of 1870 and the Commune, as a national vow — a political project as much as a religious one, and it was contested as such. Building ran from 1875 to 1914, and its consecration waited until 1919.

The Château-Landon stone it is built from secretes calcite on contact with water: it whitens in the rain instead of dirtying, which is why it has stayed so pale. The forecourt, at a hundred and thirty metres, looks over the whole of Paris, and the dome climb adds three hundred steps.