That's the dome of the Chapelle de la Sorbonne below. It's not open to the public, I'm sorry to say — but I've also read that it was pillaged and all of its interior decorations were carted off during the French Revolution in the late 18th century. In the background of this photo, you can see the tower of the Église St-Germain-des-Prés.
The building that intrigues me is the one sitting on top of a massive stone column (I think...) just to the left of the Sorbonne chapel's dome. It looks there is a fenced-in observation deck on top of its steep slate roof. Anyone know what it is?
Ken, to me that looks like a "beautified" water tower...
ReplyDeleteand on my computer that looks brick built all the way through
And that's me trying to use my Google account!!... but I'm sure it is a water tower... many Victorian examples in the UK from ones like this through to "little cottages"... look up Thorpness Water Tower [now a posh holiday let!!]
ReplyDeleteWhy would a water tower have windows?
DeleteTo beautify it?
DeleteBettyAnn
I thought it was part of Lycée Louis-le-Grand, but I couldn’t find a photo with that tower (?). Je donne ma langue au chat!
DeleteBettyAnn, I guess so. But I've never seen a water tower or château d'eau with window openings.
DeleteKen, it is done quite often in the UK where to have a stark monstrosity would ruin the appearance.
Deletehttps://carshaltonwatertower.co.uk/robing-room-window.html
That one is watertower and folly imo
This one is in Germany, but a British designer
https://thespaces.com/10-striking-water-tower-conversions/21/
https://thespaces.com/10-striking-water-tower-conversions/
But, this is possibly the most famous.... Thorpness Watertower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_in_the_Clouds
The ones I've named were originally windowed, there are a lot which have had windows added at a later stage.
The Thorpness one was open occasionaly when I was a youngster at school around there. And has always been lived in in the black wood cladded part, but the windows in the enclosure around the tank [the red part], were for the water engineers. The tank was about a metre further in all round!
And this has just come up on Giggle....
DeleteBritish Water Tower Appreciation Society
The only British society dedicated to water tower culture and history. "Onwards and Upwards"
http://bwtas.blogspot.com/2010/
No idea :)
ReplyDeleteI resorted to Google earth maps to check this out. That tower is part of the Faculte des Lettres at the Sorbonne. Adjacent and to the south of the chapel. Water tower is a good guess but could it be a stair tower going up for a view point?
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of what I thought too. I had figured out that it was part of the faculté des Lettres.
Delete