World Landmarks Event - #15 - Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, France

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Main thread for the event, schedule and access to giveaway, click here !

Welcome to the Basilica of the Sacré-Coeur !

Where is it ?
It's located in France, in the north of Paris, the ~~most beautiful city in the world~~ ~~most full of love city in the world~~ the city with the best Eiffel tower in the world. It takes place on top of Montmartre hill, which is the highest place of Paris. If you want to take public transport, there are 2 different subway stations near the basilica, but you will still have to walk in order to reach the basilica, around 50 meters higher (around 164 feet). Alternatively, there is also a short funicular if you prefer the lazy way.

What does it look like ?
Attached pictures will tell you more. It is a big, tall building, which doesn't have the classical floor shape of a basilica. Instead, this one is a "Greek cross", where both branches of the cross are the same size. It also doesn't have the classic east-west orientation, it is pointed towards main christian building of Paris: Notre-Dame
Some particular limestone has been used for the building because of how it reacts to water (rain), so it is supposed to stay white by itself. Among other particularities, the apse is decorated with the biggest mosaic of the whole country: more than 473 square meters (565 square yards). It also has a gigantic bell, called the Savoyarde (means "from the Savoie region", south-east of France moutain area where stands the famous Monte Bianco), which is also the biggest bell in France. Some numbers to help you imagine the mammoth: 3 meters wide (close to 10 feet), a weight of almost 19 tons (around 42K pounds). And a last number, dedicated to our friends from SG support who want to check the size of their famous banwiener hey support people, it's a joke, you know I love you !: the bell's hammer alone weights 1200 kg (around 2650 pounds) !
There are also many statues and sculptures both outside and inside, as standalone pieces or integrated to the building itself. Some are made of silver, as you can see in the pictures. It's also worth mentionning the great pipe organ: still there today, even if it needs restauration because of the dust caused by candellas ! For the record, it has been made initially by Cavaillé-Coll, a famous organ maker from 19th century, for some aristocrat in 1898. After the death of the owner, it has been bought by the basilica and officially inaugurated in 1919.

Is it something very old, or with any historic value ?
No, but yes :)
Montmartre hill has been inhabited for ages, even before Roman occupation. But the first stone of the Sacré-Coeur has been laid in 1875 only, so at mankind history scale, it is quite recent.
Why and how it has been built there and at this time is not a detail. Did you ever heard of the Paris Commune ? In short, it's a two months period where inhabitants of Paris, a city populated by many working poors at this time, decided to rule themselves and to reject national government. The historical background is out of the focus and the Commune is not today's theme, so you just have to know that government sent the military and killed everyone they could, ending the Commune in blood. Following this - we were also about a century after french revolution -, times were about coming back to "moral order" and religious values at state level.
This is how a law was voted, authorizing Paris' archbishop to buy (and expropriate if needed) land on Montmartre hill and build a basilica there, for the usage of believers. Montmartre hill is the place where Commune's uprising started (see previous link if you want details), and building a religious monument there was meant to be a symbol of God's laws being superior to Commune's sinners. Interesting, isn't it ? For the record, tenants of moral order have been later backslashed by people claiming the basilica was a incitation to civil war, delaying contruction a bit. It's also at this time that France went for total separation of state and church (1905). The front was finally totally built in 1914, but the basilica was only officially devoted to "Sacred Heart of Jesus" (Coeur means heart, and you can probably guess for Sacré !) in 1919, after WW1. Main building was finished in 1923 and peripherals were built in the 1930+ years.

Are many people visiting it and why ?
Define many ? If close to eleven million people a year is many, then the answer should be yes ! Many people visiting the basilica are tourists (discovery, curiosity, love for architecture, well, you already have been touring yourself somewhere, right ?), but there are also many believers coming for religious reasons.
There are a few interesting informations regarding the cult. For example, there is a permanent prayer, day and night, made continuously by generations of believers since 1885. I've also read that the communion had to be done on the knees until 1995. Note: in French, christian communion can mean two things: either a ceremony that happens one time only, to young or new christians after they have received a basic religious education, or the ceremony where believers meet on a (usually) weekly basis (exactly, the part of that ceremony where they symbolically eat the body of the christ). I don't know if the kneeling was for the former, the latter, or both.

It's over 8 PM, it's too late to visit the dome. What can I do in the area ?
Well, since I'm not a believer, the basilica was never my favorite place in Montmartre for the years I've been living in Paris :)
There are many nice streets to see in the hill area if you are travelling there for the first time. Walking randomly can be enough to feed a curious eye, as long as you are not cursed by a very bad luck that makes you take all the bad directions.
There are many bars and restaurants in the area, but there is one in particular. A little restaurant in which I've been dozen of times, and one of the few places I really miss since I left Paris (to be honnest, I prefer missing it and continue to live near a medium town, but still !). It's called Le Refuge Des Fondues, and it's a small place where you drink wine in baby bottles and eat a "fondue". It's a french dish, usually served on top of some kind of camping stove to stay hot, that can take 2 totally different recipes: one based on cheese and called "savoyarde" (imagine a big cup of melting cheese of three different kind, in which you soak small pieces of bread, using a long fork), the other based on meat and called "bourguignonne" - from the Bourgogne region - (this time the cup is full of boiling oil, and your fork has meat instead of bread). I found a YT video by an english-speaking girl, do you want to know more ?

Enough for the wall of text, let's go to the quiz !

All answers you need can be found in this post and / or in Wikipedia there. It's not meant to be hard to solve at all, as long as you take the small amount of time required to read a little bit. Also, my English is far from perfect, so I won't be upset if you point me to mistakes in my text: in fact, it will help me improve my level

Here are the pictures:

View attached image.