Parish priest Jean-Jacques Olier founded the new church in 1646, and Anne of Austria laid the first stone. Christophe Gamard's designs date to 1636. Daniel Gittard supplied a new design by 1660 and built the sanctuary, transept and north portal, and work then halted for lack of funds. Oppenord and Servandoni supervised the nave from 1719 to 1745.
Giovanni Servandoni won the 1732 competition for the Neoclassical west facade, a double colonnade of Ionic over Roman Doric. Chalgrin rebuilt the north tower from 1777 to 1780, and the Revolution interrupted the south tower, which is shorter. The article calls the mismatched towers the facade's main flaw.
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll rebuilt the organ in 1862, with 102 speaking stops. Eugène Delacroix painted murals in the Chapel of the Holy Angels from 1855 to 1861. A brass meridian line runs to a marble obelisk dated 1743, nearly 36 feet (11 m) high.
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