The parish priest, Abbé Modelonde, appealed to Napoleon III for a larger church, and the project became part of Haussmann's rebuilding of Paris. Théodore Ballu designed it. Groundbreaking was in 1861, it was largely completed in 1867, and it was finished and consecrated in 1913. The article calls the style Neo-Renaissance or Second Empire, mixing French and Italian Renaissance elements.
It has an iron frame, which allowed a more open interior. The church is 305 feet (93 m) long and the bell tower is 213 feet (65 m) high. It served as a hospital during the Prussian siege of 1870 and 1871, and was seized from the Church during the Paris Commune and armed as a fortress.
Cavaillé-Coll built the original organ in 1869. It is an active Catholic church near the Trinité metro station.
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