| Church of Saint-Pierre de Chaillot | |
| Native Name: | Église Saint-Pierre de Chaillot |
| Native Name Lang: | fr |
| Coordinates: | 48.8677°N 2.2985°W |
| Location: | 16th arrondissement of Paris |
| Country: | France |
| Denomination: | Roman Catholic Church |
Saint-Pierre de Chaillot (pronounced as /fr/) is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Chaillot neighborhood of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, at 31, avenue Marceau. It is constructed in the "Romano-Byzantine" style.[1]
The parish of Saint-Pierre de Chaillot dates back to the 11th century. The historic church of the parish was entered from rue de Chaillot, and was a simple chapel with a brick facade opening onto avenue Marceau. That church hosted the funerals of Guy de Maupassant on 8 July 1893 and of Marcel Proust on 21 November 1922, All all that remains of the old church is a statue of the Virgin Mary, the 'Vierge de Chaillot'.
The present building was designed by the architect Emile Bois. Construction begain in 1933 and was completed in 1938. Henri Bouchard[2] was the sculptor and Nicholas Untersteller[3] the painter of the interior frescoes. Pierre Seguin sculpted the column capitals.[4] The Maumejan brothers did the stained glass windows and also made the mosaic behind the altar in the crypt.[5] Pierre Ducos de la Haille did the ceiling frescoes in the dome of the sanctuary as well as the frescoes in the crypt consisting of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and Saint Peter.[6]
The parish of the church includes the Apostolic Nuncio, the office of the permanent representative of th Vatican to France. As a consequence, Monsignor Roncali, the future Pope John XXIII, was a frequent visitor to the church.
The church was inscribed as an historic monument of France on November 3, 2016.
The architecture of the church, like many other churches of the 1930s, was influenced by Byzantine architecture and Romanesque architecture, but the use of more modern materials such as reinforced concrete gave the architect more freedom.
The building has three elements; the bell tower, 65 meters high, which dominates the other structures;
The building has three elements; the bell tower on Avenue Moarceau, 65 meters high, which dominates the other structures; the lower church, in the form of a Greek cross, built like a crypt and, hidden below the other portions of the church; and the upper church, with a central bell tower. The facade of the church faces onto the avenue. The lower church covers an area of 820 square meters, while the upper church covers 1960 square meters.