Saint-Laurent

Saint-Laurent was founded at the end of the fifth century, outside the walls of Paris. The present church dates from the early fifteenth century and was rebuilt in Flamboyant Gothic; its choir was consecrated in 1429. For some twenty years it was the parish church of Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, who founded the Daughters of Charity here. The keystones of the transept trace the Passion of Christ, a domed Lady chapel was added at the east end in 1712, and the façade, a pastiche of the fifteenth century, was built between 1862 and 1865 by Constant-Dufeux. The photograph shows a window of the baptism of Clovis, its subject lettered at the foot.