# Sacré-Cœur audio guide, five stops, free.

A basilica 85 metres long, with a dome 83.33 metres high, in stone that turns whiter every time it rains: five stops from the garden to the top, and Chiaro for any carving you photograph on the way.

Made by Chiaro. Not affiliated with Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre. Page: https://chiaro.ai/landmarks/sacre-coeur/

Montmartre's white basilica gets a five-stop Sacré-Cœur audio guide here, self-guided, and the first stop plays in the garden below it before you have climbed a single step. Begin on the western paths of Square Louise-Michel with the domes above you; climb to the parvis for Joan of Arc and Saint Louis on the porch; go in and stop in the first part of the nave, facing north, for the apse mosaic; walk up a side aisle to the crossing and look up at the angels under the great dome; then come back out, go down into the moat on your left for the dome ticket office, and climb to the walkway at the top for the last stop, facing south-west over Paris. The five recordings come to about 10 minutes; allow an hour or so on foot, and more for the 280-step climb.

We read the basilica's own site, sacre-coeur-montmartre.com, on 26 September 2026: its heritage pages for the history, its visitor pages for the hours, the dome and the house rules, with Wikipedia as the second source, and each practical fact on this page is filed next to the sentence of theirs it repeats. This is a church where prayer goes on day and night before it is a sight, so a feast, a vigil or a storm can change the day, and the dome closes more readily than the church. If the sister or volunteer at the welcome desk tells you something different, go by what they say, and write to us so we can put it right.

## The stops

### 1. The white domes, from Square Louise-Michel

Paul Abadie (1812–1884), winner of the 1874 competition; continued by Honoré Daumet, Charles Laisné, Henri-Pierre-Marie Rauline and Lucien Magne (1849–1916) · Cornerstone 16 June 1875; dome finished 1899, exterior complete 1914; consecrated 16 October 1919 · Château-Landon limestone; 85 m long and 35 m wide, dome 83.33 m high · Square Louise-Michel, the terraced public garden below the south front, from its western paths; outside the gates, no ticket

Audio: https://audio.chiaro.ai/landmarks/sacre-coeur/en/square-louise-michel.mp3?v=1055180 (132 s)

Look for:
- The shape of the domes. They are stretched upwards, not hemispheres: Lucien Magne's correction to Abadie's design, so they would not look squat from this garden.
- The four smaller domes around the great one. The basilica reads them as the four evangelists, with the central dome for Christ.
- The colour of the stone, even on a grey day. Château-Landon limestone gives off calcite when it rains, and whitens.

Stand on one of the paths on the western side of the garden and look up. From here the basilica stacks itself into a single shape: the great dome with its lantern and cross, a smaller dome in front of it, the gable of the west transept on your right, and all of it the same chalky white, even under a grey sky. The stone comes from the Château-Landon quarry, about twenty-five kilometres south of Fontainebleau, the same stone as the Arc de Triomphe, and it has one strange habit. When rain touches it, it exudes calcite, and it gets whiter.

Now the shape of the domes. They are not the half-spheres the first architect drew. Paul Abadie won the competition of 1874 against seventy-six other entries, with a Romano-Byzantine church on a Greek-cross plan, set on a north-south axis so that it opens onto the city. He died in 1884, just after the foundations were finished, and five architects followed him. One of them, Lucien Magne, stretched the domes upwards, because from down here Abadie's versions looked too low. That egg shape is a correction made for exactly where you are standing. And under your feet, holding all that stone on the hill, are eighty-three piers sunk thirty-three metres into the butte.

Then there is the name of this garden. The idea for the church came first: on the eighth of December 1870, after France's defeat by Prussia, Alexandre Legentil wrote a letter proposing a church in Paris dedicated to the Sacred Heart, as a national vow of penance. The Paris Commune broke out the following March, on this hill, and ended in May. The basilica's own history calls the idea that the church was an answer to the Commune a false one, and the dates are on its side. Historians reply that the builders still chose this hill, and that at the laying of the first stone Legentil's brother-in-law, Hubert Rohault de Fleury, spoke of Montmartre as the place where the Commune had begun.

The quarrel never quite ended. In 1882 Parliament, under Georges Clemenceau's left-wing majority, cut the funding, and the work went on only because cancelling it would have cost twelve million francs. In 1898 Émile Zola mocked the whole idea of national penance and wrote, with open sarcasm, that for that they had built a gigantic landmark that Paris can see from all of its streets, and cannot see without feeling injured. And in 2004 the city named the garden you are standing in after Louise Michel, an anarchist who took part in the Commune. Eighty-five metres long, eighty-three metres to the top of the dome, and white because it rains.

### 2. Joan of Arc on the porch

Hippolyte Lefèbvre (1863–1935), sculptor; cast by Henri Rouard · Installed 1927 · Bronze equestrian statue, 4.70 m from base to head, 4,200 kg · The parvis at the top of the steps, facing the three doors of the south porch: Joan is on the right-hand (east) buttress, Saint Louis on the left; free

Audio: https://audio.chiaro.ai/landmarks/sacre-coeur/en/joan-of-arc-porch.mp3?v=1013176 (127 s)

Look for:
- Joan's raised sword and her full armour: the committee's choice, not the sculptor's, who wanted a peasant girl fighting.
- Saint Louis on the opposite end of the terrace, sword in one hand and the crown of thorns in the other.
- The pelican in relief near the top of the façade, feeding its young from its breast, the old emblem of the Eucharist.
- The three reliefs over the doors, left to right: Moses at the rock, the lance, and Saint Thomas.

Climb to the top of the steps and stand on the parvis, facing the three doors. At either end of the porch terrace, two bronze riders look out over the city: Saint Louis on your left, Joan of Arc on your right. Start with Joan.

She is 4.70 metres from the base to the top of her head and weighs 4,200 kilograms, sword raised in her right hand, in full armour. That armour was an argument. The sculptor, Hippolyte Lefèbvre, first proposed her as a peasant girl on horseback, fighting sword in hand. Cardinal Amette, the archbishop of Paris, accepted the sketch. The building committee did not, and wanted her armoured. Lefèbvre gave in, made the armour, and then refused to show the finished statue at the Salon. She went up in 1927, in the place where a Saint Martin had stood. Opposite her, Saint Louis raises his sword in one hand and holds the crown of thorns in the other.

There is a legend about these two. Abadie, the first architect, had also worked on Saint-Front in Périgueux, and this porch was modelled on that cathedral's. Above Saint-Front's north parvis are two similar empty places that look made for riders, and the story goes that the people of Périgueux did not want them, so they came to Paris.

Now look up to the top of the façade. In the niche under the gable, Christ blesses the city with one hand and shows his heart with the other: this is the Sacred Heart the building is named for. He is the third to stand there. A temporary plaster statue collapsed in 1900, a model by Gustave Michel stood from 1907, and the present five-metre stone figure by Pierre Seguin went up in 1927, the same year as Joan. Beside him are two birds in relief: a hen sheltering her chicks under her wings, and a pelican that seems to feed its young from its own breast, an old symbol of Christ giving himself in the Eucharist.

Between the arches, four angels stand for the cardinal virtues, and you can tell them apart by what they hold: Prudence a mirror and compass, Justice scales and a sword, Fortitude a tower and a tamed serpent, Temperance a clock and a belt. Last, read the reliefs over the three doors from left to right: Moses striking water from the rock, the soldier's lance piercing the heart of Christ on the cross, and Saint Thomas touching the wounds of the risen Christ. The first two are by Léon Fagel. The third is by Lefèbvre, the man who argued against Joan's armour, and lost.

### 3. The apse mosaic of the Sacred Heart

Designed by Luc-Olivier Merson (1846–1920) with Henri-Marcel Magne (1877–1944); executed by the Guilbert-Martin mosaic workshop · Executed 1918–1922, inaugurated 1923 · Mosaic of Briare enamels, 475 m² (473.78 m² in the French Wikipedia survey) · Inside, from the first part of the nave, looking north to the half-dome above the high altar

Audio: https://audio.chiaro.ai/landmarks/sacre-coeur/en/apse-mosaic.mp3?v=1184121 (148 s)

Look for:
- The golden heart on Christ's white robe, dead centre of the half-dome: the Sacred Heart the basilica is named for.
- The woman in white kneeling at his feet and holding out a crown. She is France.
- Pope Leo XIII holding out the globe, below and to one side of Christ.
- The inscription band along the base, GALLIA POENITENS ET DEVOTA ET GRATA: the last two words, 'and grateful', were added after 1918.

Come in through the doors, stop in the first part of the nave, and look straight ahead and up. The basilica was laid out on a north-south axis, so you are facing north, and the whole building is aimed at this: a half-dome of gold and blue above the high altar, 475 square metres of mosaic, one of the largest in the world. The basilica's own guide says that from the entrance your eye is drawn to the Christ in it. You could not look anywhere else if you tried.

He stands in white with his arms flung wide, and on his chest is a golden heart, radiating light. That is the Sacred Heart. Above his head a dove, the Holy Spirit, links him to God the Father at the top of the vault. The design is by Luc-Olivier Merson, with Henri-Marcel Magne, and the mosaicists of the Guilbert-Martin workshop in Paris set it between 1918 and 1922 in enamels from Briare. It was inaugurated in 1923.

Now look at the people around him, because this is a history of France told as a procession. Kneeling at his feet is a woman in a white robe, offering him her crown: she is France. Near her are the Archangel Michael, the country's patron, and Joan of Arc. Pope Leo XIII, who consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart in 1899, holds out a globe, followed by figures in traditional dress for the five parts of the world.

Along the lower band are the three vows France made to the Sacred Heart. Marseille's, during the plague of 1720, with Bishop de Belsunce. The vow of Louis XVI and the royal family, kneeling, in 1792. And the national vow of 1871 that built this church: the man kneeling is Alexandre Legentil, and the man standing behind him is his brother-in-law, Hubert Rohault de Fleury. The two men who wrote the vow are up there in the gold, facing the Christ their vow was made to. Nearby is Émile Keller, who carried the project through the National Assembly, and two generals holding the banner of the Sacred Heart. Up at the top are the saints of France, and among them is Saint Denis, who, in the basilica's own words, shed his blood on this hill.

Read the Latin band at the foot of the mosaic. It says: to the most holy Heart of Jesus, France penitent, devout and grateful. The word grateful was added after the First World War. A vow of penance, begun after one defeat and finished after a victory, and someone went back and put the thanks in.

One more thing, under the mosaic. Above the high altar, carried by two silver angels, is the Blessed Sacrament, and people have prayed before it in shifts, hour by hour, day and night, since the first of August 1885. It has never stopped. That is why the nave is kept for prayer and why the church asks for silence here: you are standing in the middle of a watch that has been going on for more than 140 years.

### 4. The angels of the Passion, under the great dome

Louis-Ernest Barrias (1841–1905), Gustave Michel (1851–1924), Louis Noël (1839–1925) and Léon Fagel (1851–1913); dome by Paul Abadie (1812–1884) and his successors · Dome completed 1899 · Carved stone; the dome 54.94 m high under the keystone and 16 m across · Under the central dome, looking up from the side aisle at the crossing

Audio: https://audio.chiaro.ai/landmarks/sacre-coeur/en/angels-of-the-passion.mp3?v=1021326 (128 s)

Look for:
- The angel clasping the cross on one pier; then find the lance, the nails and the crown of thorns on the others.
- The ring of arches just above the angels, the triforium, where the four evangelists sit in relief with their animals.
- The Latin frieze round the base of the dome, lines from the creed under the words of the national vow.

Walk up the side aisle towards the crossing, stop where the aisle opens under the great dome, and tip your head back. Four huge piers carry the dome, and on each one, just where the curve begins, an angel spreads its wings. Find the one holding the cross against its chest. The others carry the rest of the instruments of Christ's Passion: the lance, the nails, the crown of thorns, the sponge soaked in vinegar. Four sculptors shared them out: Louis-Ernest Barrias, Gustave Michel, Louis Noël and Léon Fagel.

This is the centre of Paul Abadie's plan. He drew a Greek cross, four equal arms, and crowned it with five domes: the four small ones stand for the evangelists and the great one for Christ. From where you stand the great one is almost fifty-five metres high to the keystone and sixteen metres across.

The basilica's own guide asks you to read the dome as a crown in three tiers, for Christ the King. The first tier above the angels is the triforium, the arcaded ring where the four evangelists sit in relief with their animals. Round the base of the dome runs a frieze with the words of the national vow, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, France, and under it, in Latin, two articles of the creed.

It took a long time to get this high. The church was solemnly inaugurated on the fifth of June 1891 without its great dome, which was not finished until 1899. Through those years, from 1891 to 1904, the architect in charge was advised by Charles Garnier, the man who built the Paris Opéra, in the neo-Baroque style this church was partly a reaction against.

Notice how dim it is. The windows are set very high. In April 1944 thirteen bombs fell on the street next to the basilica, and every window was blown out. The walls held. And the people kneeling in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament stayed where they were.

You will not hear the great organ today. The last great instrument of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, built in 1898 as a drawing-room organ for Baron Albert de L'Espée's villa above Biarritz, it was taken apart on the tenth of March 2025 for a restoration of about two years, and the smaller choir organ plays for the services meanwhile. It had come a long way to get here: sold by the baron to Charles Mutin, Cavaillé-Coll's successor, rebuilt in his Paris workshop, and inaugurated in this church on the sixteenth of October 1919, the day the basilica was consecrated, with Charles-Marie Widor at the keyboard.

### 5. Paris from the top of the dome

Paul Abadie (1812–1884), domes elongated by Lucien Magne (1849–1916) · Dome completed 1899; campanile finished 6 April 1912 · Château-Landon limestone; the dome 83 m high on a hilltop 130 m above sea level · The walkway around the top of the dome, facing south-west; separate paid dome visit, reached from the moat on the left of the basilica

Audio: https://audio.chiaro.ai/landmarks/sacre-coeur/en/dome-panorama.mp3?v=1020281 (128 s)

Look for:
- The Eiffel Tower on the south-western horizon, the republican counterpart to this basilica, standing on footings of the same Château-Landon stone.
- The lantern of the small dome right below you, with its fleur-de-lis finial: one of the four domes that stand for the evangelists.
- Behind you to the north, the square campanile, a little higher than where you stand, which holds the Savoyarde.

Catch your breath on the walkway at the top of the dome, after 280 steps of narrow stair, and face south-west, towards the Eiffel Tower. Just below you is the lantern of one of the four small domes, with a stone fleur-de-lis on its tip, and beyond it Paris lies flat to the horizon. On a clear day the view from up here runs thirty kilometres. The top of the dome is more than 200 metres above sea level, which is why the city looks like a map.

Find the Eiffel Tower. The French record of this church describes the tower as the republican counterpart to the basilica, one hill of faith and one pylon of iron facing each other across the city. The two have more in common than either side liked to admit: the stone under your feet came from the Château-Landon quarries, and so did the footings of the tower, and the Arc de Triomphe. Somewhere down there, too, is Charles Garnier's Opéra, the neo-Baroque building this church was partly designed against.

Now turn round and face north. Just behind the dome, barely higher than you are, stands the square campanile, eighty-four metres tall, by Lucien Magne, finished with the cross on its lantern in April 1912. Inside it hangs the Savoyarde, the largest bell in France: three metres across, nearly nineteen tonnes, with a very deep C. It was a gift from the four dioceses of Savoy, the idea of the archbishop of Chambéry, who launched a subscription in January 1889 to mark both the national vow and Savoy's union with France in 1860. The Paccard foundry cast it at Annecy on the twelfth of May 1891; curiously, the date on the bell says 1890. Twenty-eight horses hauled it up this hill, and it arrived in the night of the sixteenth of October 1895. Hung on a temporary wooden belfry, it was sabotaged in 1905, and it only went up into the campanile in March 1907.

The Savoyarde rings only for the great feasts, Easter, Pentecost, Ascension, Christmas, the Assumption and All Saints. With one exception. On the night of the twenty-fourth of August 1944, when the first French troops reached the Hôtel de Ville during the Liberation of Paris, it rang out over the city, and a bell that size can be heard ten kilometres away.

Look down once more, at the whole of it. This hill is where, in the basilica's own words, Saint Denis shed his blood; it is where a vow of penance was built in white stone; and on one August night it sent nineteen tonnes of sound across every roof you can see.

## Before you go

35, rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018 Paris, on the summit of the butte Montmartre. From Square Louise-Michel below, flights of steps climb to the parvis in front of the south porch; there is a bag check before the inner parvis and the doors. Step-free access is by a lift entrance at the back of the basilica, at 35 rue du Chevalier de la Barre, which keeps shorter hours than the church.

Métro line 2 to Anvers, or bus.

- The basilica opens its doors daily all year round, without exception, from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and entry is free for everyone, with no ticket and no booking. It stays open later for the great feasts, some prayer vigils and the Holy Hour on the first Thursday of each month.
- The dome is the one part that costs money: 8 euros for adults, 5 euros for children up to 15, paid only at its own ticket office on site. Its entrance is outside, after the security check: go down into the moat immediately on your left, and the window and ticket machine are 20 metres to the right at the bottom of the stairs. The basilica gives its hours as 10.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m., last admission 8 p.m., but says they vary with the season; it also shuts at midday for a break and can close for maintenance or weather, so look at the dome page the day before. The climb is 280 steps up a narrow stair, with no lift.
- Photos are not allowed in the nave. The basilica asks for suitable dress, silence and no phone calls, and in the nave visitors keep to the first part, which is set aside for prayer. Listen to the two indoor stops with earphones, or hear them out on the parvis beforehand.
- The crypt is not open to visitors except on a free accompanied route, in French only, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 4 p.m., for about forty minutes; it meets on the inner parvis just past the bag check, with an offering at your discretion.

Official tickets: https://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/en/info-and-visits/the-dome-tour/

The basilica's own audio tour costs nothing: made by Art, Culture et Foi, the Paris diocese's sacred-art association, it starts on your own smartphone from the QR code on the poster at the entrance, with no download and no sign-up, and covers the façade, the main chapels, the choir mosaic, the windows and the sculpture. Bring earphones. The Benedictine sisters who pray here have made a second visit, in several languages, from another QR code by the door. The crypt is shown only on a free accompanied route in French. This page sits alongside them as an independent companion that begins down in the garden and finishes on top of the dome, with every narration written out under its player for the stretches where silence comes first.

Official site: https://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/en/

## Questions

**Is there a free Sacré-Cœur audio guide?**

Yes, more than one, and none needs a handset from a desk. The basilica's official tour by Art, Culture et Foi is free, runs on your own phone from a QR code at the entrance, and the Benedictine sisters offer another in several languages. This page is free as well and covers different ground: it starts in Square Louise-Michel, ends on top of the dome, and prints each narration in full below its player.

**Can I listen to the Sacré-Cœur audio guide without a ticket?**

For four of the five stops, yes: the garden, the porch and the inside of the basilica are free and open every day. Only the last stop, on top of the dome, needs the dome ticket, 8 euros for an adult, bought on site at the dome's own ticket office.

**How much is the official Sacré-Cœur audio guide?**

Nothing. The official audio tour needs no download and no registration: scan the QR code on the poster at the entrance and use your own earphones. The only paid part of a visit is the climb to the dome, 8 euros for adults and 5 euros for children up to 15.

**Where does this Sacré-Cœur walk begin, and how do I get there?**

In Square Louise-Michel, the terraced public garden below the south front, from its western paths. Métro line 2 stops at Anvers, or come by bus; the steps of the garden lead up to the parvis and the doors, where the second stop is played.

**Is the Sacré-Cœur ever closed?**

The church, no: its doors open every single day, without exception, 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and later on some feasts and vigils. The dome is different. It shuts at midday, can close for maintenance or bad weather, and its timetable shifts from season to season, so look at the basilica's dome page the day before if the view matters to you.

**Can I take photos inside the Sacré-Cœur?**

Not in the nave. The basilica asks visitors not to, out of respect for those praying before the Blessed Sacrament, which is exposed day and night, and it asks for silence throughout. The first two stops on this page are outdoors, and so is the last.

## Continue in the app

Point Chiaro at anything at the Sacré-Cœur.

Five recordings leave most of the hill untold: three door reliefs, four virtues in stone, a crowd of popes, kings and saints in the mosaic, and a skyline of roofs from the top. Out on the parvis or up on the dome, photograph a carving you cannot place or a spire you cannot name, and Chiaro says who made it and what it is doing there. Where cameras stop, in the nave, type the question instead.

Download Chiaro: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6745618830?pt=127817940&ct=sacre-coeur-md&mt=8