Basilique de St-Denis

Lonely Planet review

St-Denis Basilica was the burial place for all but a handful of France's kings and queens from Dagobert I (ruled 629-39) to Louis XVIII (ruled 1814-24), constituting one of Europe's most important collections of funerary sculpture. The single-towered basilica, begun around 1136, was the first major structure to be built in the Gothic style, serving as a model for other 12th-century French cathedrals including the one at Chartres.

Features illustrating the transition from Romanesque to Gothic can be seen in the choir and ambulatory, which are adorned with a number of 12th-century stained-glass windows. The narthex (the portico running along the western end of the basilica) also dates from this period. The nave and transept were built in the 13th century.

During the Revolution and the Reign of Terror, the basilica was devastated; remains from the royal tombs were dumped into two big pits outside the church. The mausoleums were put into storage in Paris, however, and survived. They were brought back in 1816, and the royal bones were reburied in the crypt a year later. Restoration of the structure was begun under Napoleon, but most of the work was carried out by the Gothic Revivalist architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc from 1858 until his death in 1879. The tombs in the crypt are decorated with life-sized figures of the deceased. Those built before the Renaissance are adorned with gisants (recumbent figures). Those made after 1285 were carved from death masks and are thus fairly, well, lifelike; the 14 figures commissioned under Louis IX (St Louis; ruled 1214-70) are depictions of how earlier rulers might have looked. The oldest tombs (from around 1230) are those of Clovis I (died 511) and his son Childebert I (died 558). Just south of the basilica is the former royal abbey and now the Maison d'Éducation de la Légion d'Honneur, a school for 500 pupils.

The basilica is named in honour of St Denis, the patron saint of France (also known as Dionysius of Paris), who introduced Christianity to Paris and was beheaded by the Romans in Montmartre for his pains. Legend has it that he then walked with his head under his arm to the very spot where the basilica was built. You can see a likeness of him carrying his unfortunate head under his arm on the carved western portal of Notre Dame Cathedral.