History of the monument

On June 11, 1144, the Basilica of St Denis is dedicated near Paris, the first fully Gothic church. This website has a great history of the church as well as beautiful pictures of the interior and exterior. From the article:

"The Abbey of Saint-Denis

For centuries, the former royal abbey of Saint-Denis illuminated the artistic, political and spiritual history of the Frankish world.

The abbey-church was designated a "basilica" in Merovingian times. In the 12th century the abbot of Saint-Denis, Suger, still qualified it in his works as a "basilica". This qualifier was applied from the 4th century to churches whose floor plans were the same as those of Roman civic buildings with three naves, used for trade and the administration of justice. They were often erected outside towns and over the tomb of a saint. They were the site of a major pilgrimage and often the cause for the development of a neighbourhood or borough, like the town of Saint-Denis, which developed around the abbey and its economic potential.

Basilica is also an honorary title given to all kinds of churches, of all eras, that were the seat of a major pilgrimage. Only a cathedral is of superior rank. In 1966, the basilica was elevated to cathedral status, a name derived from "cathedra", meaning the seat of the bishop, the head of the diocese located there. A copy of the throne of Dagobert, the original of which is in the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque Nationale, is currently used by the bishop as an episcopal see.

The first building rises from the tomb of Saint Denis, a missionary bishop who died under the yoke of Roman rule in the second part of the 3rd century. The body of the saint attracted many princely burials around him from the late 4th century. Besides a partly Carolingian crypt, the remains of the building consecrated in the presence of Charlemagne in 775, the basilica preserves the testimony of buildings that were decisive for the evolution of religious architecture: the façade (1135-1140) and the apse (1140 -1144), the work of abbot Suger, which constitute a hymn to light, a manifesto of new early Gothic art; other parts of the present church built in the time of Saint Louis from 1230 to 1280 are a testimony of the heyday of Gothic art, known as "Rayonnant", such as the exceptionally vast transept accommodating the royal tombs.

A place of remembrance from the early Middle Ages, the Dionysian monastery was able to link its fate to that of the monarchy, gradually asserting itself as the privileged tomb of the royal dynasties, taking advantage of the cult of Saint Denis. Forty-two kings, thirty-two queens, sixty-three princes and princesses and ten men of the kingdom rest in peace there. With over seventy recumbent effigies and monumental tombs, the royal necropolis of the basilica is today the most significant group of funerary sculptures from the 12th to the 16th century in Europe.

But the basilica of Saint-Denis was not the "graveyard of the kings" from the beginning of the Frankish kingdom as qualified by a chronicler of the 13th century. Until the 10th century, the abbey was in fierce competition with many other cemeteries, especially with Saint-Germain-des-Prés. At the accession of the Capetians in 987, its role as a royal necropolis gradually became confirmed and most sovereigns were buried there until the 19th century; although, for political, religious or personal reasons, some kings, like Philip I in 1108, Louis VII in 1180, Louis XI in 1483, Charles X in 1836 and Louis-Philippe in 1850, would be buried in other places. Louis XVIII, who died in 1824, was the last king to be buried in the basilica.

Throughout history the Frankish kings were always in search of legitimacy, which partly explains their will to be buried with the relics of Saint Denis, Rusticus and Eleutherius (all three having been martyred together). By way of their powers, the kings thought they had acquired power and protection during their life, particularly for their battles, and for going directly to Paradise.

The rallying cry of the knights on the battlefield in the 12th and 13th centuries, "Montjoie Saint Denis!", inscribed on the scarlet banner, interspersed with the golden flames of the famous oriflamme of Saint-Denis, became the motto of the kingdom of France, which was thus placed under the protection of the titular saint of the kingdom, Saint Denis. This standard is a beautiful image of the personal union between the abbey, the patron saint and the king. This ensign was always raised in time of war by the rulers who came to collect it from the hands of the abbot on the altar of the holy martyrs. It is one of the major objects of the mediaeval epic around which a first national sentiment formed. A 1913 copy, little conform to the original, remains in the basilica.

The Hundred Years' War, the Wars of Religion and political unrest contributed to the decline of the royal abbey of Saint-Denis long before the Revolution precipitated matters. In 1793, revolutionaries attacked the symbols of the monarchy, but the basilica escaped total destruction. In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the restoration of the building. Then Louis XVIII restored the role of necropolis to the abbey. The restoration work continued throughout the 19th century and was conducted, in particular, by architects François Debret and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc from 1846."