The Sunday porch: Strasbourg, France

We spent Thursday through Saturday this week in Strasbourg, and a highlight of this trip for me — aside from two great meals (here and here) — was a visit to the Église protestante Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune or Young* Saint Peter’s Protestant Church.

The church has the oldest surviving cloister “north of the Alps,” according to its website.

Three of the four galleries were constructed in the Romanesque style in the 11th century. The fourth, shown above and in the three photos below, was completed in the 14th century in the Gothic style.

The gallery shown above and below was set up for a performance that day.

Behind the small stage was a modern sculpture. There were modern works throughout the church. (Unfortunately, I didn’t think to photograph their labels.)

Above: a Romanesque gallery, also ready for a performance or lecture. I loved the pretty chairs, used throughout the church.

A stone mason’s mark?

Above and below: the garden in the center.

The cloister was heavily damaged and partly buried in the 1700s and then re-built in other ways. After the French revolution, the site was privatized — serving over the years as a wine cellar, a cloth factory, and apartments. It was restored to its original appearance between 2000 and 2008.

On the inside, Église Saint-Pierre is remarkable for its array of colors and forms. The church was built in the 14th and 15th centuries in the Romanesque and Gothic styles.

Originally Catholic, of course, in 1524, it became Protestant.  Then in 1682, Louis XIV gave over the choir area behind the rood screen for the exclusive use of the Catholic parish. A dividing wall was built, and it remained there until 1898, when the Catholic congregation moved to its own “Young Saint Peter’s.”  In the meantime, in the 18th century, the choir had been redecorated in the Baroque style, in green and gold.

If you want to see more of Young Saint Peter’s Church, inside and out, click on any thumbnail in the gallery below.

The west end of the nave is decorated with a fresco of the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The eight angels below it represent the Beatitudes.

The organ above the rood screen was built in 1780.

The choir was built in the 13th century, but redecorated in the Baroque style in the 18th.

This simple side chapel on the west side held eight modern painted panels.

I wish that I had taken note of the artist.

The ceiling.

Looking out to the nave.

The painted ends of the pews.

A modern painting by Sylvie Lander, “A ciel overt,” in the Zorn Chapel.

I liked this children’s area in the nave.

The leatherwork on the church doors.

A little unfortunately, the area outside the church is a parking lot.

Although there are four (I think) huge plane trees.

On the center of the low wall shown in the previous photo (behind the tree) is this fountain with a hippo’s head.

The sidewalk around the church and the parking lot wall is paved with small irregular black and white stones.

*”Young” to distinguish it from “Old Saint Peter’s” Church, also in Strasbourg.