The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis (Cathédrale royale de St-Denis, or simply Basilique St-Denis, previously the Abbaye de St-Denis) is a large medieval abbey church and the first example of Gothic architecture in the world. It is also the burial place of all French monarchs. Nowadays it is the seat of the Bishop of St-Denis.
Basilique St-Denis is where the kings of France and their families are buried. For centuries, their bodies were laid to rest there. All but three of the monarchs of France from the 10th century until 1789, as well as numerous people of distinction, are buried in the tombs of St-Denis.
Founded in the 7th century by Dagobert I on the burial place of Saint Denis, a patron saint of France, Basilique St-Denis became an important interment site in its early days. In the 13th century, Abbot Odo Clement wanted to reinforce this characteristic and commissioned the restructuring of the Carolingian nave in order to adjust it to the role the abbey was to play: the royal necropolis. In 1264 the bones of 16 former kings and queens were relocated to new tombs arranged around the crossing. These tombs, featuring life-like carved recumbent effigies or ‘gisants’ lying on raised bases, were badly damaged during the French Revolution, though all but two were subsequently restored by Viollet-le-Duc in 1860. Some monarchs, like Clovis I (465-511), were not originally buried at St-Denis: his remains were exhumed from the despoiled Abbey of St. Geneviève which he had founded.
The abbey church contains some fine examples of cadaver tombs, including the effigies of many of the kings and queens. However, again during the French Revolution, these tombs were opened by workers under orders from revolutionary officials. The bodies were removed and dumped in two large pits nearby in order to later be dissolved with lime. Archaeologist Alexandre Lenoir saved many of the monuments from the same revolutionary officials by claiming them as artworks for his Museum of French Monuments.
The bodies of the beheaded King Louis XVI, his wife Marie Antoinette of Austria, and his sister Madame Élisabeth were not initially buried in St-Denis, but rather in the churchyard of the Madeleine, where they were covered with quicklime. The body of the Dauphin, who died of an illness, was buried in an unmarked grave in a Parisian churchyard near the Temple.
Upon reopening the church in 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte allowed the royal remains to be left in their mass graves. During Napoleon’s exile in Elba, the restored Bourbons ordered a search for the corpses of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The meagre remains, a few bones that were presumably the king’s and a clump of greyish matter containing a lady’s garter, were found on January 21, 1815, brought to St-Denis and buried in the crypt. Sculptors Edme Gaulle and Pierre Petitot were commissioned to create a memorial for the tragic royal pair.
In 1817 the mass graves containing all the other remains were opened, but it was impossible to distinguish any one from the collection of bones. The remains were therefore placed in an ossuary in the crypt of the church, behind two marble plates with the names of the hundreds of members of the succeeding French dynasties that were interred in the church duly recorded.
King Louis XVIII, upon his death in 1824, was buried in the centre of the crypt, near the graves of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The coffins of royal family members who died between 1815 and 1830 were also placed in the vaults. Under the direction of architect Viollet-le-Duc church monuments that had previously been taken to the Museum of French Monuments were returned to the church. The remains of King Louis VII, who had been buried at the Abbey at Saint-Pont and whose tomb had not been touched by the revolutionaries, were relocated to the crypt at Saint-Denis. In 2004 the mummified heart of the Dauphin, the boy that would have been Louis XVII, was sealed into the wall of the crypt.
Founded in the 7th century on the burial place of Saint Denis, the Benedictine monastic complex attracted many pilgrims. They travelled from afar for the sake of both Saint Denis and sumptuous royal burials. The church needed to be bigger, and the 12th-century Abbot Suger saw to that, transforming the abbey into the first Gothic masterpiece.
The earliest buildings on the site were founded in the 7th century by Dagobert I, king of the Franks. The chosen location was also the burial place of Saint Denis, the patron saint of France, who supposedly carried his head there following his own decapitation. The original martyrium was rebuilt into the abbey church of a growing Benedictine monastic complex. According to one of the Abbey’s many foundation myths a leper, who was sleeping in the nearly-completed church the night before its planned consecration in 775, witnessed a blaze of light from which Christ, accompanied by Saint Denis and a host of angels emerged to conduct the consecration ceremony himself. Before leaving, Christ healed the leper, tearing off his diseased skin to reveal a perfect complexion underneath. A misshapen patch on a marble column was said to be the leper’s former skin, which stuck there when Christ discarded it.
Another enticement for visitors was the abbey’s importance to the French royalty: between the 10th to the 18th centuries nearly every king was buried there. Also queens were crowned at St-Denis.
Before long the existing building proved too small to accommodate all the pilgrims who wished to pray to the powerful saint or attend celebrations of importance. Frustrated with the temple’s insufficient capacity, in the 12th century Abbot Suger started to rebuild parts of the abbey church. He commissioned innovative structural and decorative features that were drawn from a number of other sources. In doing so, he is said to have created the first truly Gothic building.
Abbot Suger, a friend and confidant of French kings and Abbot of St Denis from 1122, began the work around 1135. As it now appears in the light of historical data, he hired two distinct architects, or master masons. Both remain anonymous but their work can be distinguished on stylistic grounds. The new structure was finished and dedicated in 1144, in the presence of king Louis the Younger. The Abbey of St Denis thus became the prototype for further building in the royal domain of northern France. The style spread throughout France and was introduced to the Low Countries, Germany, Spain, northern Italy and Sicily.
In 1231, Abbot Odo Clement began rebuilding the old Carolingian nave. It seems the Abbot planned for the new nave and its large crossing to have a much clearer focus as the French ‘royal necropolis’. That plan was fulfilled in 1264 when the bones of 16 former kings and queens were relocated to new tombs arranged around the crossing – 8 Carolingian and 8 Capetian monarchs. These tombs, featuring life-like carved recumbent effigies or ‘gisants’ lying on raised bases, were badly damaged during the French Revolution, though all but two were subsequently restored by Viollet-le-Duc in 1860.
The abbey church, though it suffered some damage and more or less clumsy restorations in its long history, is still a thing of rare beauty and distinction. It was made a cathedral in 1966 and is the seat of the Bishop of St-Denis.
St-Denis is the first major structure designed and built in the Gothic style. Both stylistically and structurally, it heralded the change from Romanesque to Gothic architecture, setting the standard for church architecture on areas under the French influence for a couple of hundred years.
Founded in the 7th century on the burial site of Saint Denis, the abbey soon became a very popular pilgrimage destination. As the existing church was too small to contain all the visitors, in the 12th century Abbot Suger took it upon himself to expand and reconstruct the abbey. While the first church was about 60m long, with a monumental westwork, single transepts, a crossing tower and a lengthy eastern apse over a large, Abbot Suger had something even grander in mind. In the light of historical data, it appears he hired two distinct architects, or master masons. Both remain anonymous but their work can be distinguished on stylistic grounds. The first, who was responsible for the initial work at the western end, favoured conventional Romanesque capitals and moulding profiles with rich and individualised detailing. His successor, who completed the western façade and upper stories of the narthex, before going on to build the new choir, displayed a more restrained approach to decorative effects, relying on a simpler repertoire of motifs.
The work commissioned by Suger began with the demolishing of the old Carolingian westwork, with its single, centrally located door. The old nave westwards was extended by an additional four bays and a massive western narthex was added. It incorporated a new façade and three chapels on the first floor level. This new westwork, 34m wide and 20m deep, featured three great doorways, the central one larger than those either side, reflecting the relative sizes of the nave’s central vessel and lateral aisles within. It also had a three storey elevation and flanking towers (of which only the south tower survived, its partner having been dismantled following clumsy repairs in the 1840s).
What makes the façade of St-Denis so innovative is the way the unknown architects chose to emphasise the divisions between the different parts. Massive vertical buttresses separate the three doorways, whereas horizontal string-courses and window arcades clearly mark out the vertical divisions. Another novelty was the rose window in the centre of the upper story of the west portal (it was destroyed during the Revolution – the current window is a 19th century replacement). This was probably the first example of a rose window within a square frame, a feature which soon came into fashion in northern France, as similar rose windows at Chartres Cathedral and many others churches attest. Among the many influential features of the new façade were also the tall, thin statues of Old Testament prophets and kings attached to columns flanking the portals (sadly, they were destroyed in 1771, but are recorded in Montfaucon’s drawings). These were also adopted at the cathedrals of Paris and Chartres and became a feature of almost every Gothic portal thereafter. Although very little remains of the original sculptures adorning the façade, we can still enjoy the Last Judgement scene, carved above the main doorway, as well as scenes from the martyrdom of St Denis above the south (right hand) portal. The mosaic above the north doorway was lost. The portals themselves were sealed by gilded bronze doors, ornamented with scenes from Christ’s Passion.
If you are interested in medieval sculpture, you should know that some fragments of the original sculptures survive in the collection of the Musée de Cluny.
All this, however, was not enough to satisfy the ambitious Abbot Suger. He wanted a chancel that would be suffused with light. To achieve his aims, Suger’s masons drew on the several new elements which evolved or had been introduced to Romanesque architecture: the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the ambulatory with radiating chapels, the clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and the flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large clerestory windows.
It was the first time that these features had all been drawn together. The result was a thing of splendour and magnificence.
The new structure was finished and dedicated in 1144. The Abbey of St-Denis thus became the prototype for further building in the royal domain of northern France. The style spread throughout France and was introduced to the Low Countries, Germany, Spain, northern Italy and Sicily.
In 1231, Abbot Odo Clement began work on reshaping the old Carolingian nave. Another unnamed architect employed the very latest techniques and rebuilt the nave in what is now known as Rayonnant Gothic. This new style reduced the wall area to an absolute minimum. Solid masonry was replaced with vast window openings filled with brilliant stained glass (none of which survived the French Revolution). The upper façades of the two much-enlarged transepts were filled with two spectacular 12m-wide rose windows.
As it now stands, the church is a large cruciform building of ‘basilica’ form, which means it has a central nave with lower aisles and clerestory windows. It has an additional aisle on the northern side formed of a row of chapels. The west front has three portals, a rose window and one tower, on the southern side. The eastern end, which is built over a crypt, is apsidal, surrounded by an ambulatory and a chevet of nine radiating chapels.
Besides its own imposing form, St-Denis has some magnificent artwork. It retains stained glass of many periods (including the original 13th century glazing) and some royal tombs are fine examples of sculpture. One of the chapels displays regalia specially made for the coronation of Charles X and Queen Marie Thérèse of Savoy.