St. Denis

On Memorial Day (U.S.) and Lundi de Pentecôte (Day After Pentecost Holiday in France) we took the metro to the city of St. Denis.  This city is one of the suburbs surrounding Paris that has become a largely immigrant community.  However, St. Denis has a history going back to the 400s.  The reason for our visit was to go to the Basilica of St. Denis - the resting place of many French kings and the birth of the Gothic architectural style (1122).  We had not been in many years and the sunny weather (in the 80s) made it a perfect day to get the full impact of the stained glass windows.

The Church has a tumultuous history - especially around the time of the first French Revolution. The Convention called for destruction of  "those mausoleums which recall the terrifying memory of our kings." The "sans-cullotes" descended on St. Denis and destroyed many of the royal graves, piled bones in limestone to speed their disintegration, and melted down the lead coffins for bullets. Gold and silver, relics, and Joan of Arc's sword were taken to Paris and destroyed. Fortunately, one man, Alexandre Lenoir, was given permission to remove some of the mausoleums to Paris for a new museum of French National Monuments.

With the Restoration of the monarchy, Louis the XVIII repaired the damage but the restorers did a horrible job - putting wigs on Crusaders, for example - making the result more humorous than anything.  But the Basilica got a new roof and the ancient stained glass was put back into the frames. The restoration of the mausoleums caused such an uproar that eventually the well-known Neo-Gothic architect Viollet-le-Duc was called in to make things right.

Henri II and Catherine de Medici

In the crypt of the church there are remains of 4th century construction.  The reason for the importance of the site was the burial of St. Denis - the patron saint of Paris.  He was martyred on a hill in Paris (Mont de Martyr which later became known as Montmartre).  The legend is that he picked up his decapitated head and walked to St. Denis and was buried in a Gallo-Roman cemetery.  Early Christians came to the site to worship.  There is a statue of St. Denis holding his head in a park in Montmartre next to a playground!!!

The earliest king buried in the Basilica is Dagobert who died in the 7th Century. Some of the names of Kings/Royalty were of particular interest to us - Philip II The Bold, Philip IV The Good, Philip V The Tall,  Philip VI, Philip of France, Philip son of Louis VI, etc.  No wonder Grand-Mère approved of the name Philip - she loved royalty!  :)

The Basilica (which only became a Cathedral in 1966) is an interesting and easy trip from Paris.