Free visit of the Chapel of Humanity
The Chapel of Humanity is the last remaining positivist temple in Europe. Built by the Brazilian positivists in 1903, its plans were designed by the French philosopher Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism, who wanted to build a "great temple of humanity". He designed one of the greatest philosophical systems of the 19th century. After writing the monumental Cours de Philosophie Positive, he met Clotilde de Vaux in 1844 and maintained an intense correspondence with her during the year 1845, "the unparalleled year". But Clotilde died of tuberculosis in 1846, in his home on Rue Payenne. It was under his influence that Count imagined a religion whose worship is humanity itself. Conceived as a secular temple, the chapel houses the element of this concrete worship in the form of a pantheon, taking up the positivist calendar that paid homage every day to great men (scientists, thinkers, writers, poets, etc.). The singularity of this place, very rarely open to the public, is an element of striking curiosity to discover.