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Best Place to Visit in Paris - the Basilique De Saint-denis
Just on the outskirts of northern Paris, in Saint-Denis, stands the Basilique de Saint-Denis, final resting place to most of the French royalty of long ago. Relative to other, better-known sites in Paris, not that many tourists visit this church &, I suspect, mostly for two reasons: they feel it too far away to visit (though it's conveniently served by the Paris Metro) or they have just never heard of it. You shouldn't be too surprised if you find you are the only one there.
Named for the second century-AD Bishop of Paris, Saint Denis, who is said to have been decapitated in Montmartre, & then wandered for a while with his head in his hands, & eventually died on the spot where now is located the Basilique de Saint-Denis.
Though there had been a church on the site for centuries, the 12th-century Abbott Suger began in 1122 the magnificent church we know today. The result was a fine Romanesque facade with three portals with carved arches above, & the rest of the church for the most part being what is considered to be the first Gothic structure of such a large scale anywhere. This was also the first church to feature a stained-glass rose window.
The three-story nave is beautifully vaulted and has stained glass at the top level. Along the outer aisles are many tombs for French kings & queens of the past, & these tombs are crowned with striking recumbent effigies of the royalty they memorialize, some of them actual Renaissance pieces, but many of them of more recent vintage. (You will want your camera for these.)
During the French Revolution, wild celebrating mobs opened the tombs & scattered the royal remains, which were finally collected & deposited in common burial pits. These were eventually exhumed & placed in an ossuary down in the crypt. (Take along a flashlight because this vault, upon which are all the many names of the royals to whom the remains belong, is poorly lit.) Thank goodness many of the tombs were recognized as works of art (by archaeologist Alexandre Lenoir) & preserved from further harm.
The crypt (hundreds of years older than the main church above), with its massive columns supporting low arches, is rather spooky. Down there you will find the cool black slabs marking the graves of Marie Antoinette & her husband, King Louis XVI, beneath the statues of them kneeling in prayer in the main church above. You will also find relatively large spaces provided for what might contain nothing more than an urn for a pickled royal heart. Elsewhere you may see Roman coffins of stone lying haphazardly.
In closing, I just want to say what a fascinating stop on an itenerary this could be. It's one of those hallowed & haunted places that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Not visiting it would be almost like not visiting Westminster Abbey, its London counterpart.
Metro Basilique de Saint-Denis.
About the Author
I am a lecturer & online entrepreneur. I love reading, writing, travel (particularly in Paris, throughout England, Amsterdam), gardening (which mostly amounts to weeding, I'm afraid), Ebay, Internet, Asian philosophies and religions, marketing, and much more.