In last week’s Spires and Crosses column, I wrote about the Roman Catholic bishop who complained that every church he visited was locked up.
Anyone who enjoys visiting old churches has had this experience. Less common, however, are churches that are hostile to visitors taking pictures.
Some churches ban flash photography. Others — Peterborough Cathedral, known for its early 16th century fan vaulting, and London’s Southwark Cathedral — have free admission but require visitors wanting to use their camera to pay the equivalent of $1 or $2.
Until now the only church that was a no-go zone for photographers was St. George’s, the historic Anglican colonial-era church in Malaysia. That’s no longer the case, as a second church is now on my list.
When in Paris for Christmas last month I finally got inside of the Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.
The Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, or, in English, the Church of St. Stephen of the Mont, is in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank and faces the rear of the Panthéon. It’s maybe 10 minutes by foot from the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.
Having been built over a roughly 30-year period in the late 15th and early 16th centuries the architecture is a blend of Gothic and Renaissance styles, not unlike some other Parisian churches of the era.
The architecture may be interesting, but the real draw is inside.
As soon as you enter from Place Sainte-Geneviève, or St. Genevieve Square, you see it — the magnificent Renaissance-style rood screen.
The rood screen, which is perhaps the finest…
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