Basilica of Saint-Denis

Interesting facts

In 2004 the mummified heart of the boy who would have been Louis XVII, confirmed by DNA testing, was sealed in a crystal vase in the crypt.

According to legend, Saint Denis walked here from Montmartre carrying his own severed head, choosing the spot where he wished to be buried.

From 1124 until the mid-15th century, French kings rode to war under the Oriflamme, the sacred red battle banner kept at the abbey.

Henry IV of France came to Saint-Denis in 1593 to renounce Protestantism formally and become a Catholic, clearing his way to the throne.

French queens were crowned here, and the royal regalia, including the coronation sword and sceptre, were kept at the abbey between coronations.

Suger's west front probably holds the first rose window set within a square frame, a motif soon copied at Chartres and across northern France.

Charlemagne attended the consecration of the Carolingian church in 775, and on great feast days its interior was lit by some 1,250 lamps.

In 1794 revolutionaries stripped the lead from the roof to melt it down for bullets, leaving the interior open to rain and frost.

Napoleon reconsecrated the church in 1806 and chose it as the burial place for himself and his intended dynasty, though he was never interred here.

Heads from the 12th-century column statues of Old Testament kings, removed from the west front in 1771, survive in the Musée de Cluny in Paris.

Why it is worth it

On the northern edge of Paris, in the town of Saint-Denis, stands the church where Gothic architecture was invented. Abbot Suger, adviser to Louis VI and Louis VII, rebuilt the old abbey church from about 1135, first with a new west front and then with a choir completed in 1144 that combined pointed arches, rib vaults and walls opened up for large windows into a new, light-filled whole. It is widely regarded as the first fully Gothic structure. A century later the master builder Pierre de Montreuil rebuilt the nave and transepts in the Rayonnant style. The site is far older: a Gallo-Roman cemetery where tradition places the burial of St Denis, the first bishop of Paris, martyred around 250.

What sets Saint-Denis apart from every other church in France is its role as the royal necropolis. Almost every French king from the 10th century to the Revolution was buried here, and remains of earlier ones, Clovis among them, were brought in. The church holds the tombs of 43 kings and 32 queens, and walking among the tombs and recumbent effigies is a history of French funerary sculpture; in 1264, under Louis IX, the remains of sixteen earlier kings and queens were gathered into the new nave to make it a deliberate royal pantheon. In 1793 revolutionaries opened the coffins and threw the royal remains into trenches; many monuments were saved only because Alexandre Lenoir claimed them as works of art for his museum. After Napoleon's fall the remains of Louis XVI were brought here from the Madeleine cemetery, and Louis XVIII, in 1824, was the last king buried in the crypt.

The abbey church became a cathedral when the Diocese of Saint-Denis was created in 1966. Its 86-metre spire was dismantled in the 19th century, and reconstruction has been under way since 2025, with completion planned for 2029; visitors can watch the building site as part of their tour.

Getting there

The basilica is in the centre of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. Metro line 13 runs to Basilique de Saint-Denis station, about two minutes' walk away, in roughly 20 minutes from central Paris. Paris-Orly Airport (ORY) is 22.9 km away.

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From the encyclopaedia

The Basilica of Saint-Denis is a Roman Catholic cathedral that originated as a medieval abbey church. It is located in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, France. The building is of singular importance historically and architecturally because its choir, completed in 1144, is widely considered the first structure to employ all of the elements of Gothic architecture.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia