Photos of the Beautiful Medieval Gothic St Denis Basilica

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Photos of the Beautiful Medieval Gothic St Denis Basilica, France. Also the Royal Tombs of St Denis Basilica. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams.    (TIP – use the icons below the slideshow for thumbnail photos and info)

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Photos of the Beautiful Medieval Gothic St Denis Basilica, France.

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Photos of the Medieval Gothic Saint Denis Basilica, Paris France.

Saint Denis Basilica The Royal Necropolis

Apart from being the Royal Necropolis for 800 years, with only 3 of the French monarchs not being buried in Saint Denis Basilica between 1000 and 1789, the Saint Denis Basilica is also the prototype of all the great Gothic churches that sprung up throughout northern Europe.

The Burial Place of Saint Denis

In the 5th century the body of Saint Denis was buried in the Roman cemetery, along with the bodies of Saint Eleutherius and Rusticus. The Basilica of Saint Denis is now built over that cemetery. The burial ground became an important pilgrimage site and in 475 St Genevieve purchased the land and built a Church there, which developed into a monastery. In the 7th century King Dagobert I built a Basilica at St Denis with a shrine to house Saint Denis relics.

In 751 the Merovingian Pepin the Short was anointed as king in the Monastery. From the death of Hugues Capet, in the 10th century, the Basilica became the resting palace of the French Kings and Royal families.

Saint Denis Basilica The Gothic Revolution

In 1135 Abbot Suger began his rebuilding project at the western end of Saint Denis Basilica. He demolishing the old Carolingian facade with its single, centrally located door. He extended the old nave westwards by an additional four bays and added a massive western narthex, incorporating a new façade and three chapels on the first floor level.

Abbot Suger chose to rebuild in the Gothic style. This must have been a leap of faith as at the time there were no other Gothic buildings. Masons must have suduced Abbot Suger by promising a high building with huge windows and potted arches. This new Gothic style dwarfed older Romanesque building and the increase in light revolutionised the interior space.

The second part of the older Carolingian Saint Denis Basilica to be replaced by Abbot Suger was the Choir in 1140-44. Here the full potential of the Gothic is realized with high columns that soar upwards to a stone vaulted ceiling.

The Naive of Saint Denis Basilica was the last part to be developed by Abbott Sugar in 1231. By this time Saint Denis Basilica had become recognised as the French Royal Family Necropolis It utilised the full potential of the Gothic in a flamboyant or Rayonnant style, that used intricate stone tracery to enhance the decorations around the windows and columns.

The great Rose window of the North Transept depicts “Creation”. Its intricate design is a wonder of medieval Gothic architecture showing the extraordinary height the skills of the medieval masons had reached.

Saint Denis Basilica A Gothic Triumph

Saint Denis Basilica became the talk of Northern Europe. Masons flocked to work on and learn the new Gothic style. They could then return home and build new gothic building for their Lords. Three was an explosion of huge Gothic Cathedrals built all over Northern Europe thanks o Abbot Suger.

Today the naive, choir, side aisles and crypt of Saint Denis Basilica are filled with the tombs of the French Royal houses from Pepin the Short to Louis XVI and Mary Antoinette.

Medieval Europe may have been a dangerous ruthless place to live but it was not, as is commonly believed, without high art. Saint Denis, along with the other great medieval Gothic buildings are proof of the incredible skills and sense of adventure that medieval man possessed, especially when it came to venerating the glory of God.

On entering The Basilica of Saint Denis 900 years ago, the average medieval man, who lived in a wooden thatched house, must have thought he was entering Heaven, it still fells like that 900 years later.