Basilique Saint Denis - a final resting place of kings

16/4/13 Tuesday
King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie-Antoinette, have figured large in our time in Paris. We've encountered them in various places along the way - Château de Fontainebleau, the Conciergerie, Château de Versailles, Place de la Concorde, and not forgetting our Hollywood encounter (via movie) early in the piece ;-) Then yesterday, as we walked away from the glamour of Chanel, Dior, YSL, Givenchy and the like, and into the 8ème, we happened upon the Chapelle Expiatoire on Rue Pasquier. Going into the pretty grounds, which are bursting into spring bloom, for a closer look, we read the plaque over the door which states:

Le Roi, Louis XVIII à élevé ce monument pour consacrer le lieu. 
Où les dépouilles mortelles du roi Louis XVI et de la reine Marie Antoinette. 

Transférée le XXI Janvier MDCCCXV dans le sépulture royale de St Denis. 

Ont repose pendant XXI ans. 

Il a été achevé la deuxième année du règne du roi Charles X, l'an de grâce MDCCCXXVI.

Or in other words:

King Louis XVIII raised this monument to consecrate the place 

where the mortal remains of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, 

transferred on 21 January 1815 to the royal tomb of Saint-Denis, 

reposed for 21 years. 

It was finished during the second year of the reign of Charles X, year of grace 1826.

Aha, so this is the original site of the Madeleine cemetery where the mortal remains of Louis and Marie-Antoinette were placed after their executions - what could be found of them anyway. Apparently there was a lot of gathering up of bodies after the French Revolution's "terror" and wave of executions, and many were dumped here in a mass grave and covered with lime. Louis XVI's brother Louis XVIII, who became king after Louis XVI was executed and little Louis XVII died, had the chapel built to house the remains temporarily, and then another brother, Charles X, had the remains transferred to the Basilique Saint-Denis during his reign. So many Louis!!!!
Unfortunately the Chapelle Expiatoire wasn't open yesterday so we couldn't see inside, but today we think it only fitting to see Louis and Marie-Antoinette through to their final resting place before we leave Paris. It's north of the city almost at the end of Metro line 13, just outside the 18ème in le banlieu Saint-Denis.
The area around the basilica is nothing special, just a shopping mall really. The church itself is steeped in history and situated on the site of a Gallo-Roman cemetery, and the archaelogical remains still lie beneath the cathedral. It's now referred to as the Necropolis of the kings of France, with almost every king from the 6th to the 18th centuries buried there.

There is also a mysterious and well-established legend surrounding the church. Saint Denis, reported to have been the first bishop of Paris, was martyred (decapitated) on the hill of Montmartre around 250AD, and legend has it that he then walked 10km, carrying his severed head and preaching a sermon the whole way, to the site of this church, indicating that he wanted to be buried there.
Under the church is a tomb but apparently they only found animal bones there. So where is the mysterious Saint Denis then???

The cathedral contains a series of wall panels depicting the legend, with drawings of Saint Denis, head tucked under his arm, neck a bloody mess. Hmmm, I dunno, the cynic in me wonders if maybe it didn't happen quite like that............. makes a great story though ;-)

It's a lovely Gothic church, the current building dating to the 7th century, with beautiful stained glass windows, soaring columns and arches, and contains numerous recumbent statues and several upright ones.

There are 42 kings, 32 queens, 63 princes and princesses, and 10 "great men of the realm" buried here. There is also a chapel containing cenotaphs (no bodies) in honour of the Bourbon dynasty, and a crystal vessel containing the preserved heart of Louis XVII, the infant son of Louis and Marie-Antoinette.

And yes, you can see the little shrivelled heart of poor Louis, who was separated from his parents after they fled Versailles during the revolution, and who, after the death of his father, became nominally the uncrowned king of France until his death from illness while in the care of a cobbler and his wife a couple of years later. Long story really, go look it up on Wikipedia!!! (and no, I didn't want to photograph his little shrivelled heart inside its crystal canister..............).
The tales surrounding Louis and Marie-Antoinette and their family are pretty gruesome, and it's hard to know how much of it is accurate so many years down the track, and there are mysteries and unsolved parts.

But their tombs now lie peacefully side by side in the crypt of Saint-Denis (that's them in the middle of the six, Marie-Antoinette on the left, Louis on the right), and above in the Saint Louis chapel is a pair of praying statues commissioned by Louis XVIII when the ashes of Louis and Marie-Antoinette were returned to Saint Denis.

The church is a sombre but beautiful place, containing an amazing history of the French monarchy over the years, and worth a visit if you like that sort of thing :-)