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A couple of posts back I wrote of an afternoon spent visiting the Basilica in Saint Denis in the good company of a few fellow bloggers. Here are a few more photos from that day, going into a bit more detail on that lovely structure and all it contains. Over the centuries Saint Denis was the principle burying place for French royalty, only a small number were buried elsewhere. During the French Revolution, the royal tombs were sacked, desecrated, and the mortal remains of the monarchs and their kin were unceremoniously dumped in mass graves outside the Basilica. For a fine description of those ghoulish events track down a copy of the novel "Sire" by Jean Raspail. Later the royal bones were returned to the interior, but as it was impossible by then to know which bones belonged to who, they were walled up in the crypt behind plaques bearing all of their names, starting with Dagobert from over a thousand years ago. A lot of very sobering history resides there, a moving place to visit if you are in Paris and have the time. The Paris Metro runs to Saint Denis, the station is just a short walk from the Basilica.
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As I arrived the winter sun was lighting up stained glass from the far side of the nave.
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And this is the interior of that same rose window . . .
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I couldn't help wondering if this fellow had literally been defaced during the depredations of the Revolution ?
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Marie Antoinette . . .
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And Louis XVI . . .
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Many members of the royal family were accompanied into the afterlife by faithful stone compagnons at their feet.
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This is the heart of Louis XVII under glass . . . trimmed of the aorta and superior and inferior vena cava, the pulmonary arteries and veins, removed from its protective covering of the pericardium, though perhaps the remains of the thymus gland are still visible ? A more skilled anatomist than I might be able to offer some insight as to exactly what is visible here, the right auricle and ventricle ? The left ? Some of both ? Ah, the human heart, that vessel of mysteries yet unplumbed.
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These last two are details from down in the crypt, ancient sculpteurs had such vivid visions of humanity.
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