Basilica of Saint-Denis

A short metro ride north of Paris stands the church where Gothic architecture began and where the kings of France were buried for twelve centuries. Abbot Suger’s choir of the 1140s, with its walls of glass, was copied across Europe; round it lie more than 70 royal tombs and effigies, from Dagobert to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Few visitors make the trip, which is half the pleasure. The nave is free; the tombs, which are the reason to come, need a ticket, and there is now a spire being rebuilt in the open, stone by stone.

The saint, the abbot and the kings

Denis, the first bishop of Paris, was beheaded around 250; the legend says he picked up his head and walked north from Montmartre to the spot where he wished to be buried. An abbey grew over his tomb, and King Dagobert I, buried here in 639, made it royal. In the 1130s Abbot Suger, adviser to two kings, began rebuilding it. His west front was consecrated in 1140 and his choir in 1144. The choir, with pointed arches, ribbed vaults and slender columns carrying great windows, combined for the first time the elements that define Gothic, and within a generation the cathedrals of northern France were being built on its model.

The nave and transepts were rebuilt from 1231, and it became the necropolis of the French monarchy: 40 kings, 26 queens and some 60 princes and princesses. In 1793 the Revolution emptied the tombs, threw the bodies into pits beside the church and melted down the lead coffins; many monuments were saved by Alexandre Lenoir for his museum and later returned. In 1815 Louis XVIII had his brother Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette reburied here. The north tower and spire, weakened by lightning and storms, were taken down in 1846–47. The church has been a cathedral since 1966.

The visitor’s cheat sheet

What to see, in the order you meet it

The west front

Suger’s west front is still recognisably his: three portals, round arches, and above them a rose window, one of the first ever set in a façade. The single tower on the south side is a reminder of the missing north one, which is now being rebuilt.

The nave

The free part of the church is the nave of the 1230s onwards, tall and light, a fine example of the Rayonnant Gothic of Saint Louis’s reign, with great rose windows in the transepts beyond. It is used for services, and the organ is by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.

The ambulatory

Behind the altar, the ambulatory is Suger’s choir: a double row of slender columns, and radiating chapels that run into one another so that, in his words, the whole church shines with ‘wonderful and uninterrupted light’. The chapel windows hold exact copies of his twelfth-century glass, among them the earliest known Tree of Jesse window; the fragile originals were removed for safekeeping.

The royal tombs

The necropolis is a history of French sculpture as well as of the monarchy. The oldest effigies are a set commissioned by Louis IX in the 1260s to honour his predecessors. The Renaissance tombs are the grandest: Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, Francis I and Claude of France, and Henry II and Catherine de’ Medici, each a marble temple with the couple kneeling in prayer on top and lying naked in death below. The kneeling statues of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were commissioned by Louis XVIII.

The crypt

Below the choir, the crypt holds the vault of the Bourbons, the ossuary into which Louis XVIII had the bones from the revolutionary pits gathered, and, since 2004, a crystal urn containing the heart of Louis XVII, the boy king who died in prison in 1795, identified by DNA.

The spire worksite

In 2025 work began to rebuild the north tower and spire, about 90 metres high, as they stood before 1846, using traditional methods. The worksite, the Fabrique de la flèche, is open to visitors as part of the necropolis ticket: you can watch stonemasons and blacksmiths at work. Completion is expected around 2030. The worksite is closed on Mondays, when the necropolis stays open.

Tickets and tours

Don’t miss

• Suger’s ambulatory The birthplace of Gothic, behind the high altar.
• The Renaissance tombs Louis XII, Francis I and Henry II, with their queens.
• Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette Kneeling in marble, and buried in the crypt.
• The heart of Louis XVII In the crypt.
• Dagobert’s tomb A thirteenth-century monument to the first king buried here.
• The spire worksite Medieval building methods, live.

Insider tips

Saint-Denis has a rough reputation, and it puts some visitors off. The walk from the metro to the basilica is short and busy; take the usual big-city care with bags and phones, as you would anywhere in Paris. On Stade de France match days the metro and RER are packed.

The ticket is free for anyone under 18, for EU citizens and residents of France aged 18 to 25 and with the Paris Museum Pass. There is no cloakroom, and bags must be small.

Where to stay and eat nearby

Most visitors come out from Paris for the morning or afternoon, and there is no need to stay in Saint-Denis itself. The Café de la Flèche, at the end of the visit, and the cafés on the square are handy for lunch; the big covered market nearby runs on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

More churches in France

• Notre-Dame de Paris — begun less than twenty years after Suger’s choir.
• The Sainte-Chapelle — Saint Louis’s chapel, Gothic as a jewel box.
• Chartres Cathedral — where the light Suger wanted reached its height.
• Reims Cathedral — where most of the kings buried here were crowned.

See all the French churches in this guide →