Why not visit the Basilica of Saint Denis?

 

With Notre Dame still closed as restoration work continues as a result of the devastating fire of April 15, 2019, the Gothic church of choice to visit in Paris is surely St. Denis. It's easy to get to, located just north of the Paris city limits and very close to a metro stop. 

Not only is St. Denis a splendid example of 13^th century Gothic architecture, it also has renown as the place where the Gothic style began in the 1140s (as every student of art and architectural history knows). The church has even more to offer. Because it served as the funerary church for French royalty, it houses an amazing collection of royal funerary monuments dating from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. During the French Revolution, these monuments were saved from the destructive fury of the mobs. Surely such a place would be filled with tourists! Yet when we visited in March, the only groups to be seen were local children, teenagers and younger, given a tour through French history by able guides clearly skilled in speaking to the different age groups.

I was envious. When I was ten years old, how I would have loved an excursion like this!  But where I grew up, in Los Angeles, such field trips were out of the question.

This photo shows the west façade. The first thing one notices is the missing tower.  What happened?  There was originally a second tower, but it was destroyed by a lightning hit in June, 1837.  The king at the time, Louis Philippe, visited the church soon after, in July -- an occasion commemorated in a large stained-glass window in the south transept.  A revival of interest in stained glass was just beginning at that time. 

The tower was soon rebuilt, but the construction wasn't properly done; the tower collapsed from its own weight in 1845.  A new tower is planned; the project is well underway.  

The first step is to strengthen the foundations in this northwest corner of the church.  

In the process of preparing the ground, archaeological excavations have been conducted.  

Over 200 graves from the early Middle Ages (Merovingian and Carolingian periods, roughly 6th-9th centuries) have been uncovered.

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Although the façade we see today dates from 1130-1140, the church has much earlier origins. According to tradition, St. Denis, who lived in the 3rd century, was buried here. He had come from Italy to convert the Gauls, but met a martyr's death.  He even, legend has it, carried his decapitated head from the place of his execution (Montmartre) to this place, the site of his death, preaching all the way!  No wonder he became one of the patron saints of Paris!  A church was built over his tomb -- and then underwent many remodelings over the centuries.

This tympanum sculpture over the main entrance depicts the Last Judgment.  It has been restored, and it has also been cleaned in recent years of soot and grime.  It looks great. 

The vast and beautiful nave we see today is from the 13th century, the High Gothic period. When few people are visiting, it's a good place to sit and think about things.

For more active prayer, there is a side chapel with a statue of the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus.  You can light a candle, an expression of prayer. 

The east section of the church is run as a museum. After you buy your ticket, you enter the world of French royalty. Here are tomb monuments  (in French: "gisant") of many of the kings and queens who were buried in this church, monuments saved from destruction in the French Revolution.

The medieval examples are sober.  

By the Renaissance, the tomb monuments became truly extravagant, detailed allegories of death and the triumph over death.

This example was made for Louis XII (ruled 1498-1515) and his second wife, Anne of Brittany.  On the lower level, inside, recumbent statues of the two show their nearly nude bodies in the gruesome agony of death.  (Difficult to see and impossible to photograph when you can't cross the rope barrier and get in close.) On top, in fine form, the royal couple kneel in prayer: their hope for life eternal.  

Around the lower section, statues represent the virtues of the monarchs.  

The last of these great tombs was made for Henry II and his wife, Catherine de Medicis.  Afterwards, the Bourbon rulers of 17th and 18th century France favored lavish funerary ceremonies, but kept their graves simple. 

After the Revolution, Napoleon intended that he and his lineage would be buried in St. Denis, continuing the royal tradition.  This was not to be, of course.  

In 1840, 19 years after Napoleon died on the remote south Atlantic island of St. Helena, Louis Philippe (whom we have met above), hoping to cash in on nostalgia for the triumphs of Napoleon, arranged for his body to be returned to Paris and given grandiose burial under the dome of the Invalides.

At St. Denis, after the Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, royal victims of the Revolution were honored.  In 1815, the remains of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were transferred here and given appropriate burial. 

This statue of the two praying was made soon thereafter.  

Louis XVI, in profile

The east end of the church contains the famous ambulatory, where in the 1140s the Gothic style first coalesced.  Abbot Suger, the head of the church and monastery at that time, was responsible for the decision to combine for the first time three already existing design elements: pointed arches, rib vaults, and large windows (to let in more natural light -- the divine light of God).  This new architectural synthesis would become hugely popular in western Europe. Gothic was the last of the Medieval architectural styles, in use in some places as late as the 16th century.  

At the moment, this area is being restored.  We had to content ourselves with homage paid from a distance.  

Another visit to this amazing church is definitely in order.