Two men, Alexandre Legentil and Rohault de Fleury, lived to see Paris saved from the lengthy Prussian siege and invasion (Prussian War, 1870), where Parisians became so hungry that they ate all the animals in the city. These two Catholic businessmen vowed to build a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should France be spared. Archbishop Guibert of Paris took the project and under Paul Abadie's design, work started in 1875. The Sacr�-Coeur basilica was completed in 1914. Consecration was forestalled until 1919, due to German invasion, when France became victorious.