Saint-Germain-des-Prés: station history
Served by: metro line 4.
Why this name?
Opened on 9 January 1910 on line 4, the station is in the 6th arrondissement, under boulevard Saint-Germain, near the intersection with rue de Rennes and rue Bonaparte. Its name comes from the church and place Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The two entrances, on either side of the boulevard, are each decorated with a Val d'Osne lamp post, and Mabillon station, on line 10, is very close.
Anecdote
Until 2016, the platforms evoked the district's literary history: extracts of works were projected on the vault, display cases presented stories by young talents and the station had no advertising panels. These ornaments were removed in 2016, then the Andreu-Motte light ramps in 2017, with the automation of the line. What remains is the bronze sculpture « Les Messagers » by Gualtiero Busato and a mosaic in homage to Gutenberg, by André Ropion; in spring 2021, black letters spelling the station's name, in different sizes, were put up on the walls.
Audio guide
The church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the oldest church in Paris
Around 543, the Merovingian king Childebert I, son of Clovis, brought back from Spain relics acquired at the siege of Zaragoza, including the tunic of Saint Vincent. To shelter them, he founded an abbey. With its copper roof and gilding, it has long been nicknamed "Saint-Germain-le-Doré". ✨ It became the necropolis of the Merovingian kings and took the name of Saint Germain, Bishop of Paris.
Around the year 1000, Father Morard, supported by King Robert the Pious, launched the reconstruction by the bell tower-porch, one of the oldest in Paris. 🔔 The Gothic choir was added in the 12th century. Between invasions, fires and regime changes, the building was almost destroyed. During the Revolution, the abbey was suppressed and almost all its buildings disappeared, but the church remained standing.
Today, it is the oldest church in Paris. In the chapel of Saint Benedict, a plaque recalls that the philosopher Descartes rests there.
Around Saint-Germain-des-Prés
- Jardin du Luxembourg, 750 m away — A garden begun in 1612 by Marie de' Medici, around a palace she modelled on the Pitti Palace in Florence. It holds a small model of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, dating from 1870.
- Musée Eugène Delacroix, 140 m away — The painter Eugène Delacroix's final studio and apartment, preserving his paintings, drawings and prints near Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
- Église Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 50 m away — The oldest surviving church in Paris, founded in the 6th century, once an influential Benedictine abbey in the Middle Ages.
- Café de Flore, 150 m away — A historic café frequented by Sartre, Camus and Picasso, a symbol of 20th-century Parisian intellectual life.