Exterior view
by COTTE, Robert de, Photo
Since the church of Saint-Roch, built near the Louvre to Lemercier’s design in 1653, remained incomplete, Robert de Cotte provided plans for the fa�ade in c. 1728. He set it on a thirteen-step platform, limited the three-bay composition to two storeys each with a different order, and enlivened it with a play of surface relief, such as slight inset of the upper arch. His emphasis on vigorous plasticity and vertical unity was managed by means of superimposed columns rising through broken entablatures to support a crowning pediment.
With his fa�ade for Saint-Roch (designed c. 1728; built 1736–8), de Cotte completed one of the major basilicas in Paris. It was built between 1736 an 1738.