Old Altar at the Church of Saint Francis of the Cordeliers
I was glad and relieved to find out the Church of Saint Francis of the Cordeliers is actually open to the public. I wasn’t sure what was up with the other historical buildings but this is the only one that I have been able to enter so far. I thought that it seems to be a small church so I think this visit should be very quick. However, when I entered, I realized that the church has been converted into a museum. There is no entrance fee and you are free to go around. There are a good number of exhibits here but it was hard for me to understand what I was seeing. No doubt a lot of these items have something to do with the Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine who live next door.
Memorial at the Church of Saint Francis of the Cordeliers
Indeed, the dukes are patrons of the church and like a lot of royalty back then, they prefer to be buried in churches. It was convenient that the Church of Saint Francis of the Cordeliers is just next door. One of the most prominent exhibits here are the tombs. You can see that there are sculptural representations of the whoever is buried on top of the tomb itself. I always thought that it is a rather strange custom but it seemed to be popular back then, since this isn’t the only place where I have seen sculptures like this. In fact, the quality of the sculptures here isn’t as good as the ones I have seen elsewhere but I guess it will do.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/ChurchofSaintFrancisoftheCordeliers.kmz} zoom=19]