Saint-Sulpice Seminary (France)

The seminary grounds you are approaching hold a strange and tangible relic of one of the darkest periods in French history. Beneath the impressive architecture of the modern seminary, the crypt of the Grande Chapelle houses a grim reconstruction of the Roquette prison, including the original walls and cells where Archbishop Georges Darboy and other hostages were held before their execution during the Paris Commune in 1871. It serves as a haunting physical reminder of the violent political upheavals that once spilled into the lives of the clergy.