Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [101]
BASILIQUE DE ST-DENIS Map
01 48 09 83 54; www.monuments-nationaux.fr; 1 rue de la Légion d’Honneur; tombs adult/senior, student & 18-25yr €6.50/4.50, under 18yr free, 1st Sun of the month Nov-Mar free, basilica admission free; 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, noon-6pm Sun Apr-Sep, 10am-5pm Mon-Sat, noon-5pm Sun Oct-Mar; 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 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.
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TRANSPORT: ST-DENIS
Metro Line 13 to Basilique de St-Denis station for the basilica and tourist office, to St-Denis-Porte de Paris station for the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire and the Stade de France (make sure to board a train heading for St-Denis Université, not for Gabriel Péri Asnières-Gennevilliers-Courtilles, as the line splits at La Fourche station)
RER Line B (station: La Plaine-Stade de France) for the Stade de France
Tram Line T1 links Bobigny Pablo Picasso station, the terminus of metro line 5, with Basilique de St-Denis station
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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; r 1214–70) are depictions of how earlier rulers might have looked. The oldest tombs (from around 1230) are those of Clovis I (d 511) and his son Childebert I (d 558). On no account should you miss the white marble catafalque tomb of Louis XII and Anne of Bretagne that dates from 1597. If you look carefully you’ll see graffiti etched on the arms of the seated figures dating from the early 17th century. The Bourbon sepulchral vault contains the remains of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette but not of the king’s younger brother Charles X; there’s a tomb, but his bones lie in a church in Nova Gorica in Slovenia.
Self-paced 1¼-hour audioguide tours of the basilica and tombs cost €4 (€6.50 for two sharing), available at the crypt ticket kiosk.
MUSÉE D’ART ET D’HISTOIRE Map
01 42 43 05 10; www.musee-saint-denis.fr, in French; 22bis rue Gabriel Péri; adult/student, senior & everyone on Sun €5/3, under 16yr free, 1st Sun of the month free; 10am-5.30pm Mon, Wed & Fri, to 8pm Thu, 2-6.30pm Sat & Sun; St-Denis-Porte de Paris
To the southwest of the basilica is the Museum of Art and History, housed in a restored Carmelite convent founded in 1625