Sacré-Cœur Basilica crowns the highest point of Montmartre, its white travertine dome visible from across Paris, six kilometres from Notre-Dame as the crow flies.

Construction began in 1875 and finished in 1919, yet the building looks far older than it is. As one VoiceMap tour notes, Barcelona's Sagrada Família started just seven years later but appears strikingly modern by comparison: "a testament to the fact that French people are resistant to change."

Below lies a neighbourhood that launched the 1871 Paris Commune and nurtured Picasso, Modigliani, and Renoir in its cramped artist studios. When locals refused to surrender their cannons to the French army, revolution erupted on this very hill.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace this layered history, connecting the basilica to Montmartre's bohemian past, its windmills painted by Van Gogh, and the artists who flocked here seeking cheap rent and creative freedom.