Saint-François-Xavier: station history
Served by: metro line 13.
Why this name?
A line 13 metro station, opened with the first section of line 10, between Invalides and the former ghost station Croix-Rouge, then attached to the former line 14 which linked Invalides to Porte de Vanves, and finally to line 13. It takes its name from the neighbouring church of Saint-François-Xavier: this saint, a Spanish Jesuit (1506-1562), founded missions in India, Japan and China. The station is of standard layout, with two platforms of about 75 metres under an elliptical vault, and a single entrance, "Place André-Tardieu", whose cut-stone neoclassical balustrade is the work of the architect Joseph Marie Cassien-Bernard.
Anecdote
The station name is engraved on this balustrade, topped by two Dervaux lamp posts, which is rare on a network that often uses only one per entrance. A similar arrangement exists at some entrances of Châtelet, Alma - Marceau and Mairie des Lilas stations. In 2012, platform screen doors were installed, as at eleven other stops on line 13. Nearby are the church of Saint-François-Xavier, the Pagode, the headquarters of the Île-de-France regional council and several embassies.
Audio guide
The Pagoda, a Japanese pavilion in the heart of Paris
In 1896, François-Émile Morin, director of the Bon Marché, looked for something to spoil his wife, who was passionate about Asian art. His idea: to offer him a Japanese pavilion at 57 bis rue de Babylone, a stone's throw from the department store. The architect Alexandre Marcel, also fascinated by Japanism, was inspired by the shrine of Nikkō Tōshō-gū. The pagoda is delivered on the same birthday! 🎁
But the love story turns short: from the year of the inauguration, Madame Morin leaves her husband for her partner. What a humiliation for the generous husband💔! However, social evenings continued under other owners, until the 1930s, when the party gave way to the spotlight.
In 1931, the pagoda became a cinema, the only one in the 7th arrondissement. Closed during the war, it reopened in 1944 and became a temple of cinema: Buñuel, Cocteau, then Truffaut, Chabrol, Godard or Rohmer found a setting to suit them. 🎬 Taken over by Gaumont in the 1980s, it became an independent cinema again in 2000 and kept its tea room in the garden. 🍵
Facade, roofs, large hall and Japanese garden are classified as historical monuments. Closed in 2015, bought in 2017 by the American Charles S. Cohen, it is now being restored and reborn with four rooms, including two new ones under the garden. ✨ Its Japanese roof can already be seen from the street, at the corner of rue Monsieur: a detour that expands in the middle of the 7th!
Around Saint-François-Xavier
- Hôtel des Invalides, 700 m away — A monumental complex founded by Louis XIV, home to Napoleon's tomb beneath its gilded dome.
- Musée Rodin, 550 m away — A museum devoted to sculptor Auguste Rodin, in a mansion surrounded by a sculpture garden.
- Église Saint-François-Xavier, 130 m away — A 19th-century neo-Renaissance church dedicated to the Jesuit missionary of the same name.