Sights in St Denis
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Basilique de St-Denis
St-Denis Basilica was the burial place for all but a handful of France’s kings and queens from Dagobert I (r 629–39) to Louis XVIII (r 1814–24), constituting one of Europe’s most important collections of funerary sculpture; today the remains of 43 kings and 32 queens repose here. 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 double ambulatory, which are adorned with a number of 12th-century stained-glass windows. The na…
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Musée d’Art et d’Histoire
To the southwest of the basilica is the Museum of Art & History, housed in a restored Carmelite convent founded in 1625 and later presided over by Louise de France, the youngest daughter of Louis XV. Displays include reconstructions of the Carmelites’ cells, an 18th-century apothecary and, in the archaeology section, items found during excavations around the St-Denis Basilica. There’s a section on modern art, with a collection of work by a local son, the surrealist artist Paul Éluard (1895–1952), as well as an important collection of politically charged posters, cartoons, lithographs and paintings from the 1871 Paris Commune.
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