Cathédrale de Saint-Denis

This is an incredible site. I've been twice to St. Denis, and tried to take my wife a third time, but it was New Year's Day and the cathedral was closed. 

Getting off the Metro, the area is a bit depressed, but the people are hard scrabble working folks and immigrants, lots of street vendors.

It's been a long time since my visit, but I remember the Gothic history of the place being quite remarkable, and the tombs of all the French royalty dating back to Clovis, Dagobert, Pepin the Short, and up to Marie Antoinette - are you kidding me? Then, you learn the Parisians during the revolution pulled the corpses and bones into the street having strewn the bodies about.

They were re interred together in the crypt by Napoleon. The church itself is one of the earliest if not the earliest Gothic cathedrals. A definite highlight which should be included on the list. 

Totally worth a stop and a couple hours time to visit.

When you take the relatively short way from the centre of Paris to Saint-Denis you are not sure if you really went the right way. You are still very much in Paris but the quarter is rather poor and and as a caucasian north European you feel like a stranger among a largely arab crowd. Street vendors enhance the exotic feeling. When you stand in front of the building the doubts are not resolved: The asymmetrical facade with just one tower looks rather clumsy and unfinished despite the beautiful portals. The modern arge square in front does not help the impression. 

And what a difference once you enter: One of the most important buildings in European history with the first choir that resolved the walls into windows. When I visited the weather was cloudy and dark but you could still get an impression of the light effects. But I definitely have to return there once with sunshine. If you follow the history of the early gothic buildings this is the key monument and Abbé Suger its great and interesting hero. If you look closer you find that the whole area of the Île-de-France was a laboratory for a new style and it is pivotal to put it in the context of the other great churches that were build around the same time in the are: the church St-Martin-des-Champs in Downtown Paris, the Cathedral Saint-Étienne in Sens (strangely also with an asymmetrical facade), probably contemporary with St. Denis, and the …

I lived around 8 years in St Denis and I can say a lot of things about it.

I think this site is very important and should be inscribed to the list. I know people are tight with this idea, because of too many christian sites already inscribed or whatever. But in fact this cathedral is largely more important than all the gothic cathedrals. I would be agree deleting Amiens, Bourges or Speir cathedrals to let the place to this cathedral.

I'm French and I know well our History and the standing of this place.

St Denis is not the most impressive cathedral in France, but it is the origin of the gothic architecture as you can read it for example in the "Pillars of the Earth" of Ken Follett. It's a really good novel to understand the importance of St Denis for France and UK in particular.

The royal city was a very rich place during the Middle Age. Now, it's the most important necropolis in Europe, nothing less.

The Saint who gave his name to the cathedral is one of the most famous Saint in our western culture, due to his particular biography. Decapitated, he took his head in his hands and walked several kilometers before finally falling at the current location of the cathedral. That's how his statue is very recognizable in the catholic churches: a man carrying his head in his hands. 

Culturally, St Denis stayed also in the french …

The basilica of Saint Denis, in the immediate suburbs of Paris, is a masterpiece of religious architecture and has been an artistic achievement and model throughout the centuries. The place has been the resting place of numerous French monarchs, as exemplified by its numerous sculpted tombs.

I agree with the other reviewer. St Denis should be given world heritage status because of its influence on the architecture of western Europe. While not as imposing as Chartres or Notre Dame de Paris, it is elegant and well worth the effort to get there.

what can I say about this site? Well to start that in my eyes it totally deserves world heritage status. It is another cathedral but a very beautifull one. It's also one of the earliest (perhaps the first?) gothic church in the world. I walked in on a very sunny day and the stained windows light up beautifully.

What makes this cathedral truelly special however are the funerary monuments of the french kings. I've never seen such a big collection of royal funerary monuments put together. What I understand from Saint Denis history is that all the french kings from the 6th century were buried here (also Jeanne D'arc achieved sainthood here). During the revolution the graves got destroyed (except some saved for la gloire de la france) and all the royal skeletons were thrown in one big pit. They never managed to sort them out so all the bones remain as a mish mash in the pit. Which is supposed to be highlighted by name plates. I think I saw these plates in the crypt but I'm not certain.

Amongst the funerary monuments are those from Marie-Antoinette and Clovis I (king of the franks). Also an interesting sight is the preserved heart of the boy who would have become King Louis XVII if it weren't for the revolution. Apparently they wanted to throw his body in a mass grave, but a doctor cut out his heart and preserved it, it was found in 1978 and positively identified with DNA …