Basilica Of Saint-Denis: The Church

The next day, Sunday, September 19th, we still had sufficient energy for another major visit, and so took the long Metro ride out to the former village of Saint-Denis (it's just a suburb now) to see the former abbey church there, now the Basilica of Saint-Denis. We'd visited Saint-Denis in 2014, but its historical importance, architecturally and otherwise, warrant another look. Saint-Denis is where its abbot, Suger, in the 12th century, put together all the elements that define the Gothic, and, importantly, wrote about it all too, giving it a theological as well as architectural basis. Within a century, Gothic architecture had covered the Ile de France and was spreading rapidly, even beyond France. Suger, BTW, was no mere abbot. A schoolboy chum of the next king, he was Regent of France while said king was off crusading, and was a close advisor to the next king. No wonder the thing spread like wildfire. Anyhow, we leisurely toured the cathedral, paying rather more attention to tombs and memorials than we did in 2014. Saint-Denis has been the official burial site for French royalty from nearly the beginning, although the tombs were ransacked and vandalized during the Revolution. As I have observed elsewhere, the Church was hated nearly as much as the monarchy in the late 18th century. Then, after three more revolutions (1830, 1848, 1870), they stopped having a monarchy. Anyhow, I'll have to do two posts for Saint-Denis, one the church, the other, the royal necropolis.

It used to have two towers, but alterations and high winds, over
the centuries, necessitated removing the north tower; there is
talk of adding it back

Helpful floor plan; Suger's original Gothic 
included just the top and bottom parts, chancel
and west end and narthex; he left the Carolingian
nave alone for the time; it was rebuilt to Rayonnant
Gothic standards in the 13th, which is more or less
what we see now

West tympanum; the usual judgement; such a sculpture common
to all Gothics; before, not so

The west rose window now turned into a clock (very un-Gothic);
was covered up inside by the organ anyway

Still the west entrance...some beautiful sculpture;
perhaps not original (!)

Suger in the Judgement, praying; we'll see him again

Now inside; the north rose window

Closer up

Now in an adjacent education center (headed outside for the
Medieval garden), looking at the helpful model of what the
village and the abbey looked like in 1600; the good old days

Spare parts

Medieval garden tour (not in English, too)

Looking up at the flying buttresses around the chancel area;
themselves buttressed by probably 20th century iron rods

Outside on the north side now; the various cathedral repair and'
renovation shops are functioning today in an educational mode,
allowing the kiddies and adults to try their hand at stone
cutting, sculpture, blacksmithing, glass and tracery, etc.

South tympanum: beheading of Saint Denis; the Bishop of Paris
reputedly picked up his severed head and carried it five miles
up the road (past our apartment) to the spot where he wanted his
abbey to be located; " just a flesh wound!"

South rose window 

Now in the crypt, admiring the Romanesque capitals

Green man

Tomb of Suger

Still praying

From one of the windows in the chancel; still praying

View from near the altar

Looking up; this is the original Suger Gothic, 
mid-12th; some bits of the chancel windows are
original; they've been through a lot

Ditto

Way abaft the beam, west end, the organ

Chancel ceiling

Half the miniscule choir; I seem to remember the Revolution
used the original for firewood

Exiting the gift store, looking back at the grand
old church, grand-daddy of Gothics

The gift store; nearly the smallest we've seen in a cathedral