Dan Brown takes readers of The Da Vinci Code to the Church of Saint Sulpice, in Paris. It stands on the east side of the Place Saint-Sulpice, in the Luxembourg Quater of the the Vie arrondissement of Paris. It is dedicated to Sulpitius the Pious.
The church is famous for its pipe organ, one of only three 100-stop organs in Europe. To find out more about the organ, check out its web site at www.stsulpice.com
Inside the church is the marble obelisk, an 18th century astronomical sundial.
An announcement posted at the church, in English and French, reminds tourists where the fiction and facts go separate ways.
“Contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent best-selling novel, this is not the vestige of a pagan temple. Please also note that the letters ‘P’ and ‘S’ in the small round windows at both ends of the transept refer to Peter and Sulpice, the patron saints of the church, not an imaginary ‘Priory of Scion,’ ” the secret organization that Brown says ordered the formation of the military order known as the Knights Templar.”
See Richard Benishai’s article at Geobiology on Saint Sulpice and the ‘Rose Line” which includes some excellent photographs of the exterior and interior of the buildings, including the obelisk and the starting point for the brass line.