Sacré-Cœur crowns Montmartre with a Romano-Byzantine basilica built after the Franco-Prussian War. Its National Vow origins and decades of construction, funded by donations, make it a place of pilgrimage as well as a visible Paris landmark.
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The white domes of Sacré-Cœur crown Montmartre, but the basilica’s story is rooted in a religious and political moment. The idea of a National Vow took shape in 1871, after defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and upheaval of the Paris Commune.
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- Paul Abadie’s Romano-Byzantine design won the 1874 competition.
- The first stone was laid in 1875 and the basilica was consecrated in 1919.
- Its construction followed the National Vow project approved in 1873.
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