Abbey of St Genevieve Religious Site

Address: Former Abbey of St Genevieve area, Paris (5th arrondissement), France

The Abbey of St Genevieve was a medieval monastic foundation on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, dedicated to the city’s patron saint, Geneviève. The abbey was an influential religious and intellectual centre in the Middle Ages.

Most of the abbey complex no longer survives; the former abbey church was altered during the French Revolution and its site became the Panthéon. Remaining traces of the abbey are woven into the urban fabric of the Latin Quarter.

The abbey originated in the early medieval period around the cult of St Geneviève and developed into a major monastic and scholarly house. Revolutionary and 19th-century urban changes removed or repurposed much of the medieval structures.

The historic site sits on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in Paris’s 5th arrondissement, within the Latin Quarter, close to the Sorbonne and other central landmarks.

• Panthéon location: The Panthéon occupies the site of the abbey church and is the clearest remaining marker of the abbey’s historic footprint in Paris’s Latin Quarter.

Located in Paris’ 5th arrondissement, the area is served by multiple Métro lines (e.g., Cluny-La Sorbonne, Luxembourg, and Panthéon stations). It is walkable from the Seine and the Latin Quarter.

• Check the holdings of the Abbey of St Genevieve in libraries or local exhibitions-they occasionally lend manuscripts to Paris institutions.
• The neighbourhood is on the Left Bank-combine with a walk toward the Panthéon and Luxembourg Gardens.
• Many cafés and bookshops in the area have long been frequented by students and writers-look for plaques commemorating literary figures.