The Sacré-Cœur isn’t a cathedral, whatever most tourists think: it’s a basilica, built in under fifty years on a hill that had been sacred for centuries. Getting in is free, but not everything here is as simple as it looks: the dome can only be climbed if you pay, and there’s no lift, and once you’re inside the nave your camera stays in your pocket.
If you’ve already read my guide to Montmartre, you know the Sacré-Cœur is one of the quarter’s stops. Here I actually go inside: the story of the vow that had it built, what you see as you climb the 280 steps of the dome, why the crypt costs nothing and just how big the mosaic is that you see overhead the moment you step through the door.
Why a basilica, and why right here, on the highest hill in Paris?
Let’s go!
1. A national vow after a lost war
The Sacré-Cœur was born out of a defeat, not a victory. In 1870-1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, Paris was besieged and France lost Alsace and part of Lorraine. Alexandre Legentil, a Parisian industrialist, vowed to build a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Archbishop of Paris approved the final text of the “vœu national” in 1872, and in 1873 the French National Assembly voted the project a work of public utility.
An architecture competition followed, won by Paul Abadie, at the time a specialist in Romanesque restoration rather than new buildings. Abadie proposed a Greek-cross plan, oriented so that the façade looks towards Paris, in a Romano-Byzantine style that a city used to the Gothic and to classicism had never seen.
How long did it take, from the vow to the basilica you see today?
The first stone was laid in 1875. The building was substantially finished in 1914, but the First World War stopped everything: the consecration came only on 16 October 1919, at the hands of Cardinal Vico, forty-four years after work began. The basilica you visit is younger than it looks: it was consecrated less than a hundred and twenty years ago, while Notre-Dame is more than eight hundred years old.
2. The stone that washes itself
Look at the façade up close and sooner or later one detail will strike you: it’s dazzlingly white, even after more than a century of Paris smog. That isn’t down to constant upkeep: the basilica is clad in Château-Landon stone, a limestone that, when rain falls on it, releases calcite, a substance that whitens the surface instead of dirtying it. The more it rains, the cleaner the Sacré-Cœur stays. The Vittoriano in Rome is white too, but it’s in Botticino marble.
On either side of the entrance portico you’ll notice two bronze equestrian statues: on the left Saint Louis (Louis IX), the crusader king, on the right Joan of Arc. They’re no ordinary decorative detail: they’re the two warrior saints of the French monarchy, set to watch over a building born out of a military defeat.
3. The biggest mosaic you’ve probably seen without knowing it
What’s that golden wall shining as soon as you walk in?
It’s the choir mosaic, in the apse above the high altar: 475 square metres of tesserae, among the largest of its kind in the world. The mosaic is the work of Luc-Olivier Merson, H. M. Magne and R. Martin, and it was unveiled in 1923, three years after Merson’s death.
At the centre is Christ standing with his arms open, showing the golden heart the basilica is named after. At his feet, kneeling, France is shown as a woman in a white robe offering him her crown, with the archangel Saint Michael and Saint Joan of Arc beside her; to Christ’s left is the Virgin, and around them, on different registers, saints of the universal Church and French saints. Below, an inscription in Latin: Jesu Gallia poenitens et devota, “France repentant and devoted to Jesus”.
You can’t take photographs freely inside the basilica: photography is forbidden in the central nave, out of respect for prayer, and during Mass. It is allowed, though, in the side aisles and in the ambulatory, the strip that runs behind the apse. For a professional photograph you need authorisation from the basilica’s communications office.
4. Two hundred and eighty steps, no lift
Is it worth paying to climb the dome, if the forecourt is already a viewpoint?
Yes, for a simple reason: from the forecourt you see Paris with the basilica behind you, while from the dome you see it in a full 360 degrees, with Montmartre itself beneath you. But you need to know this before you get to the ticket office: there’s no lift. The only way up is a narrow spiral staircase, and the official visit page puts it in these words: “the only way up to the dome is to climb 280 steps”. There are no toilets along the way, and the basilica advises against the climb for people with mobility difficulties, pregnant women and very small children.
The entrance to the dome is separate from the basilica’s: it’s outside, after the security check, and you go down to the left into the perimeter moat. You don’t need to book, even for groups: tickets are bought on the spot, but the ticket office closes in the middle of the day for the staff’s break, on top of stopping in any case half an hour before the evening closing, with the last entry at 17:00: if there’s only one time of day you can manage, it’s best to arrive in the morning.
5. The crypt, free and little advertised
Unlike the dome, the crypt has no ticket of its own: the guided tour, which lasts about forty minutes and is given in French only, runs on a free-will offering. It takes place only four days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 16:00, and it stops in July and August. It’s the part of the basilica most visitors skip, simply because they don’t know it exists: no sign at the entrance flags it as prominently as it does the dome.
6. The bell that weighs as much as three elephants
In the bell tower, which rises north of the dome, hangs the Savoyarde: a bell of about 19 tonnes, cast at Annecy-le-Vieux by the Paccard foundry, brought to Paris in October 1895 and donated by the four dioceses of Savoy, the region that had become French only in 1860. It’s one of the most imposing bells in the world among those that can be swung, and the name it goes by simply recalls Savoy, which donated it.
7. The highest point in Paris, with a footnote
Montmartre is the highest hill in Paris: its highest point, inside the walls of the Calvary cemetery beside the church of Saint-Pierre, reaches 130.53 metres above sea level. Anyone who takes in the view, then, really is seeing it from the roof of the city. There is a footnote, though, that almost nobody mentions: that record applies to private ground. In public space, the highest point in Paris isn’t at Montmartre but at Belleville, at 128.5 metres, two metres lower. You can’t see the difference with the naked eye, but it’s a good way of understanding why the view from here is what it is: you’re not on the highest point of all, you’re on one of the highest points from which anyone can look out over Paris for free.
Practical information
Figures checked on 8 October 2026 on the official website sacre-coeur-montmartre.com. Prices and opening hours change: check again before you leave.
Admission to the basilica. It’s free, every day of the year, 6:30-22:30. On the first Thursday of every month it stays open until midnight for Eucharistic adoration. Dome. Ticket 8 euros for adults aged 16 and over, 5 euros up to age 15. Groups of at least 20 people pay 6 euros (4 euros for children). Hours 10:15-17:30, last entry at 17:00: the climb is 280 steps on foot, with no lift, and the ticket office also closes in the middle of the day for a break. Hours and openings change with the season and the weather. Crypt. Guided tour of about 40 minutes, in French only, on a free-will offering, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 16:00. It doesn’t run in July and August. Photos. Forbidden in the central nave and during services; allowed in the side aisles and in the ambulatory. Professional photography requires authorisation from the basilica. Access for reduced mobility. There’s an entrance with a lift to the basilica (not to the dome) at the back, at 35 rue du Chevalier de la Barre, open 8:30-19:00. Getting there. The address is 35 rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018 Paris. The nearest stations are Anvers (line 2) and Abbesses (line 12): from both you walk up, or you can take the Montmartre funicular, run by RATP. The funicular costs the same as a metro ride and accepts the Navigo pass, but it needs a fresh validation, like a ride of its own: it isn’t simply a continuation of your metro journey. The funicular covers 108 metres, with a 36-metre climb, in under a minute and a half. How long it takes. Visiting the basilica alone takes 20-30 minutes; with the climb up the dome, count on an hour and a half, steps included.
From here on
If you’re coming down from the Place du Tertre or from the museum that tells the story of the Montmartre of the artists, you’ll find the whole picture of the quarter in my guide to Montmartre, of which this basilica is only the most photographed stop. For another national vow turned monument, but of the opposite kind, the Panthéon tells the story of secular France rather than devout France.
Photographs: façade by Hytioz (CC BY-SA 4.0); dome by Guilhem Vellut (CC BY 2.0); mosaic and funicular by Chabe01 and HJ Mitchell (CC BY-SA 4.0 and CC BY 4.0); view of Paris by Roman Eisele (CC BY-SA 4.0), from Wikimedia Commons.
