Question:
Answer: St-Denis Basilica just north of Paris is the Royal Necropolis of the kings and queens of France. "For twelve centuries, from Dagobert to Louis XVIII, all French kings, apart from three Merovingians and a few Capetians, were buried at St-Denis. In 1793 the Convention decreed the destruction of the mausoleums; the coffins were exhumed, the bodies thrown pel-mel into unnamed graves; the tombs, however, were saved as the archaeologist Alexandre Lenoir, had removed them some time previously and placed them in a specially created museum. The tombs were returned to the basilica under Louis XVIII." The basilica we see today is essentially the building erected by Abbe Suger of St-Denis in the 12th century, and of Pierre of Montreuil, architect to St Louis in the 13th century. There is a small church called the Expiatory Chapel (or Chapelle Expiatoire) not far from the Madeleine which was first used as a cemetery for the Swiss Guards and then for the victims of the guillotine. There were 1,343 victims and included Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. On his return to Paris, Louis XVIII had the remains of his brother and sister-in-law disinterred and transported to St-Denis. There is a memorial downstairs on the spot where their remains were found. Charlotte Corday and Philippe-Egalite were also buried there, either side of the steps leading to the chapel. It's like a small oasis in the middle of Paris.
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