Entering the American Cathedral and leaving behind the embassies, designer showrooms and the busy world of Parisian commerce one may find a space of harmony and tranquility, admiring also one the finest examples of neo-Gothic architecture in Europe.
This school is known for the quality of its teaching. It is a higher education establishment. In the past, the school was successively used as a prison, barracks and a reformatory.
The American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris has served the American community since the 1830s. Nowadays, the building except for its statutory services also provides numerous community-based services as well as some cultural events.
The American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris has served the American community since the 1830s, when services were organized and a parish was formally established in 1859, and the first church building was consecrated. The church itself was consecrated on Thanksgiving Day (November 25) in 1886, coinciding with the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in New York and, thus, reinforcing French and American alliance. During the German occupation of France during World War II (1940-44), the cathedral was taken over by the German military chaplaincy. In 1922 the Holy Trinity became a cathedral, or technically speaking a pro-cathedral, which means that it continues as a parish church and also serves as the seat for the Bishop in charge of Episcopal churches in Europe. Nowadays the building hosts a bilingual Montessori school, recovery groups such as AA, weekly free concert series, and many more community-based services.
Being built in neo-gothic style, the structure of the cathedral was based on drawings done by George Edmund Street, a leading architect of the English Gothic Revival style, who also designed the interior (fittings and furnishings), making it consistent with the architectural design.
The works of George Edmund Street include the London Law Courts, the Church of St. James the Less in Westminster and the American Church in Rome. A chief characteristic of neo-Gothic architecture is the so-called integrity of the design and the materials, which means, in short, that what seems to be a marble column is in fact a marble column. The church is 146 feet in length and 70 feet wide; the nave is 58 feet high; the spire which is 85 metres high is considered to be the highest in Paris. The materials used are stone, marble and oak. The floor is Belgian and Italian marble. A noteworthy fact is that the fittings and furnishings (e.g. the baptismal font, the wrought iron work, the candlesticks, the pulpit, the lectern and even some of the silver Communion services) were also designed by the architects and are therefore in a style consistent and harmonious with the architectural design.