A law of public utility was passed to seize land at the summit of Montmartre for the construction of the basilica.
Architect Paul Abadie designed the basilica after winning a competition over 77 other architects.
With delays in assembling the property, the foundation stone was finally laid 16 June 1875.
Passionate debates concerning the basilica were raised in the Conseil Municipal in 1880, where the basilica was called "an incessant provocation to civil war" and it was debated whether to rescind the law of 1873 granting property rights, an impracticable proposition.
The matter reached the Chamber of Deputies in the summer of 1882, in which the basilica was defended by Archbishop Guibert while Georges Clemenceau argued that it sought to stigmatize the Revolution.
The law was rescinded but the basilica was saved by a technicality, and the bill was not reintroduced in the next session.
A further attempt to halt the construction was defeated in 1897, by which time the interior was substantially complete and had been open for services for six years.

Abadie died not long after the foundation had been laid, in 1884, and five architects continued with the work:  Honoré Daumet (1884–1886), Jean-Charles Laisné (1886–1891), Henri-Pierre-Marie Rauline (1891–1904), Lucien Magne (1904–1916), and Jean-Louis Hulot (1916–1924).
The basilica was not completed until 1914, when war intervened; it was formally dedicated in 1919 after World War I, when its national symbolism had shifted.

Construction costs, estimated at 7 million French francs and drawn entirely from private donations, were expended before any above-ground, visible structure was to be seen.
A provisional chapel was consecrated 3 March 1876, and pilgrimage donations quickly became the mainstay of funding.
Donations were encouraged by the expedient of permitting donors to "purchase" individual columns or other features as small as a brick.
It was declared by the National Assembly that the state had the ultimate responsibility for funding.

Muted echoes of the basilica's "tortured history" are still heard, geographer David Harvey has noted.
In February 1971 demonstrators pursued by the police took refuge in the basilica and called upon their radical comrades to join them in occupying the church "built upon the bodies of communards in order to efface that red flag that had for too long floated over Paris" as their leaflets expressed it.
A law of public utility was passed to seize land at the summit of Montmartre for the construction of the basilica. Architect Paul Abadie designed the basilica after winning a competition over 77 other architects. With delays in assembling the property, the foundation stone was finally laid 16 June 1875. Passionate debates concerning the basilica were raised in the Conseil Municipal in 1880, where the basilica was called "an incessant provocation to civil war" and it was debated whether to rescind the law of 1873 granting property rights, an impracticable proposition. The matter reached the Chamber of Deputies in the summer of 1882, in which the basilica was defended by Archbishop Guibert while Georges Clemenceau argued that it sought to stigmatize the Revolution. The law was rescinded but the basilica was saved by a technicality, and the bill was not reintroduced in the next session. A further attempt to halt the construction was defeated in 1897, by which time the interior was substantially complete and had been open for services for six years.
Abadie died not long after the foundation had been laid, in 1884, and five architects continued with the work:  Honoré Daumet (1884–1886), Jean-Charles Laisné (1886–1891), Henri-Pierre-Marie Rauline (1891–1904), Lucien Magne (1904–1916), and Jean-Louis Hulot (1916–1924). The basilica was not completed until 1914, when war intervened; it was formally dedicated in 1919 after World War I, when its national symbolism had shifted.
Construction costs, estimated at 7 million French francs and drawn entirely from private donations, were expended before any above-ground, visible structure was to be seen. A provisional chapel was consecrated 3 March 1876, and pilgrimage donations quickly became the mainstay of funding. Donations were encouraged by the expedient of permitting donors to "purchase" individual columns or other features as small as a brick. It was declared by the National Assembly that the state had the ultimate responsibility for funding.
Muted echoes of the basilica's "tortured history" are still heard, geographer David Harvey has noted. In February 1971 demonstrators pursued by the police took refuge in the basilica and called upon their radical comrades to join them in occupying the church "built upon the bodies of communards in order to efface that red flag that had for too long floated over Paris" as their leaflets expressed it.
Sacré-Cœur, Paris