Trifter

Monumental achievement of the Second Empire, contemporary piercing Boulevard du Prince Eugene (now Bd Voltaire) and its very recognizable twin bell towers of 68 meters high, the present church was built between 1863 and 1869 on the site of a former convent of Annonciades – female order founded in 1500 by St. Jeanne de France, daughter of King Louis XI, it replaced a chapel became too small due to the expanding population of the district Popincourt.

The architect Théodore Ballu, who is also the church of Ste Clotilde and the Trinity, did not hesitate to use technology “modern” by including in the attic of metal frames, he was able to extend the nave and lighten the upper parts. Another innovation: it calculates the dimensions of the building so that the internal volume (25 000 m3) can accommodate 2 500 people in conditions of optimum health.

According to the use of time, Th Ballu juxtaposing architectural quotations from several sources: the arches used in the lower parts are of Romanesque style, the three huge rosettes, which illustrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity — God the Father in the north, south Son, the Holy Spirit to the west – are inspired by great works of gothic and the ciborium is an evocation of the building “Byzantine” which covers the altar in the church of St. Ambrose in Milan, while the central chandelier copy the “ring of light” placed above the tomb of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle. The whole does not, however, lack of size.

On 29 April 1869, the archbishop of Paris, Mgr Darboy, blesses the bells in the presence of the Emperor and the Empress Eugenie, godmother of one of them.

The statue of Saint Joan of France in white marble by Louis Christmas, decorating the pillar left of the choir date from 1920 and since 1980, Saint Ambroise, Gérard Vincent, it is for right.

Today, in a neighborhood where many workshops of the early twentieth century have gradually given way to residential and commercial textile wholesale, the church of Saint Ambrose is the heart of an active parish and dynamic, reflecting the vitality of a Christian presence of six centuries old.