The marshal's mausoleum
A full marble theatre: Death, the commander, weeping France โ French Baroque's summit.
Yann Caradec from Paris, France โ CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท Livioandronico2013 โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Wilfredor โ CC0 ยท Livioandronico2013 โ CC BY-SA 4.0
Maurice de Saxe: a Polish king's natural son and France's greatest eighteenth-century commander โ Fontenoy 1745 his crown. His Protestantism barred Parisian burial, so Louis XV set Pigalle carving this tomb for twenty years. The result: France's greatest funerary honour outside Paris itself.
Strasbourg was an early Reformation capital โ Calvin himself ministered here โ and Saint Thomas turned Lutheran in 1524 for good. Alsace remains bi-confessional under a special religious regime setting it apart from secular France โ another history layer in the border city.
It nearly lines the Petite France route: cathedral, lanes, Saint Thomas, the water quarter โ twenty added minutes buying the country's greatest Baroque marble. Just check the concert board: a free organ evening turns the pass into a visit.
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Saint Thomas is Strasbourg's 'Protestant cathedral', Alsatian Lutheranism's stronghold since 1524 โ a rare Gothic hall church of five equal naves giving a light-filled breadth wholly unlike its Catholic sisters. Its astonishing treasure is Marshal de Saxe's mausoleum: Louis XV's legendary commander, refused burial in Catholic Paris for his Protestantism, received here France's greatest Baroque tomb โ the marshal descending steps towards his coffin unshaken as Death lifts the lid, weeping France tugs his arm, and beaten lions and eagles crouch below. A complete marble theatre worth the trip alone. Its 1741 Silbermann organ was played by Mozart himself in 1778 and still sounds โ making the church an organ lovers' pilgrimage, with free summer concerts a tradition.
A full marble theatre: Death, the commander, weeping France โ French Baroque's summit.
Silbermann 1741 under Mozart's fingers in 1778 โ still playing.
Five equal naves โ a rare, luminous Protestant breadth.
11 Rue Martin Luther, 67000 Strasbourg