28. Musée d'Artillerie.
Church of St. Thomas d'Aquin.
Since the year 1797 the Dépôt Central d'Artillerie has been
established in an edifice which was formerly a convent of the
Jacobins, adjoining the church of St. Thomas d'Aquin. The spacious
apartments of this extensive building contain work-shops, laboratories,
models, maps, plans etc., as well as a highly interesting
museum, connected with the artillery service. The last-named
department is open (gratuitously) to the public on Thursdays
from 12 to 4 o'clock. The custodians are usually discharged
non-commissioned officers.
The number of objects contained in the Musée d'Artillerie is
upwards of 4000, for the thorough examination of which a catalogue
(1 fr.) is indispensable.
In the passage of the basement-story, the former cloisters of
the ancient convent, is suspended the Chaîne du Danube, 590 ft.
in length and about 8000 lbs. in weight, which was employed by
the Turks during the siege of Vienna in 1683 for the purpose
of facilitating the passage of the Danube. It formed part of the
spoil brought from Vienna by the French in 1805; another similar
chain is preserved in the imperial armoury at Vienna. Of the
numerous old guns preserved on the ground-floor the finest are
two from Algiers, near the staircase leading to the upper stories.
Here, too, are exhibited 12 different species of breech-loader,
presented by M. Krupp.
A hall on the ground-floor contains a collection of weapons,
gun-barrels, projectiles, models of gun-carriages etc. from the
time of Louis XIV. down to the present day. Here, too, is preserved
one of the Russian torpedos which in 1854 and 1855 occasioned
considerable damage to the French and English fleets
before Cronstadt. In a glass case at the end of the hall are kept
the arms of the emperor of China, brought from Pekin in 1860;
adjacent to it, his saddle, Japanese and Mongolian weapons, and
other trophies of the Chinese campaign.
The upper floor consists of four galleries and the Salle des
Armures. The latter contains numerous specimens of armour,
most of them of the 15th and 16th centuries, coats of mail,
shields, helmets and weapons. Ancient weapons of stone and
other curious and valuable relics are preserved in glass cases.
The First Gallery contains guns and pistols with flint-locks,
cross-bows, inlaid carabines and other weapons of the 16th and
17th centuries. Above the glass cabinet are placed some trophies
from the Crimean war.
The Second Gallery contains fire-arms, lances and halberds.
In the glass cases ancient and modern guns and pistols of rich
workmanship: No. 1831. Indian gun; Nos. 1838—1848. Guns from
Algiers; No. 1849. A gun inlaid with gold and precious stones,
manufactured at Rotterdam and destined by Napoleon I. as a present
for the Dey of Morocco.
In the Third Gallery more modern fire-arms of various descriptions.
In cases oriental weapons and poniards; in glass cabinets
Etruscan and Roman arms.
The Fourth Gallery contains swords, rapiers, poniards, halberds,
falchions.
In the court may be seen several Russian anchors and pieces
of ordnance captured at Sebastopol.
The contiguous church of St. Thomas d'Aquin, erected 1740,
is the parish church of the aristocratic Faubourg St. Germain. It
possesses little to interest the stranger, with the exception of a
few good pictures: in the choir frescoes by
Blondel, and the
Ascension, painted on the ceiling, by
Lemoine; Descent from
the Cross by
Guillemot; St. Thomas Aquinas calming a storm, by
Ary Scheffer; Christ on the Mount of Olives, a landscape by
E. Bertin.
Sainte Clotilde, the modern Gothic church of the Faubourg
St. Germain, see p. 165.
