Clean...

I wrote about the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church almost ten years ago (see here) and I will not repeat the story about the church and the abbey, but… a few words: The present church, which was part of the great abbey is basically from the 11^th and the 12^th centuries, but a number of modifications have of course taken place during the following centuries and the building suffered seriously from the Revolution. During the 19^th century, Victor Baltard (1805-74) – today especially remembered for the disappeared “Les Halles” (previous posts here) - was in charge of a restoration and he engaged Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-64), assisted by Alexandre Denuelle (1818-79) for the decoration of the walls – most of the walls were thus covered by paintings, but, lately, you could hardly see this paint work anymore under the dirt.  

Cleaning and restoration of the walls and ceilings of about half of the church have just been finished, partly thanks to sponsoring by some of today's artists. We will obviously have to wait for at least another three years, before the whole church will be neat. On some of the pictures below you can clearly see the difference between the renovated and the not cleaned and restored parts.

Also renovated, you can find the impressive tomb of John II Casimir Vasa (1609-72), a man with a surprising career. King of Poland 1648-68, he abdicated and became abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés during his last four years. (One could perhaps mention that his father was King Sigismund III, grandson of Gustav I of Sweden.) Only John Casimir’s heart remains here; he’s buried in Krakow, then the capital of Poland.