Sacré-Cœur, Paris

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre (Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre), commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica (Basilique du Sacré-Cœur) or simply Sacré-Cœur (Sacré-Cœur, pronounced [sakre kœr]), is a Catholic church and minor basilica in Paris dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Sacré-Cœur Basilica is located at the summit of the butte of Montmartre. From its dome two hundred meters above the Seine, the basilica overlooks the entire city of Paris and its suburbs. It is the second most popular tourist destination in the capital after the Eiffel Tower. The basilica was first proposed by the former Bishop of Nantes, Felix Fournier, in 1870, after France's defeat and Napoleon III's capture at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War. Attributing the defeat to the country's moral decline since the French Revolution, he proposed a new Parisian church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Although early proposals were discussed some months before the Paris Commune, its prominent hilltop location—overlooking the site of the uprising—was only built upon after the Commune's defeat, making it continuously controversial among some of the French left-wing, who view it as a symbol of the violent repression of the Communards. The basilica was designed by Paul Abadie, whose neo-Byzantine-Romanesque plan was selected from among seventy-seven p

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