Saint-Denis
48° 56 08 N 2° 21′ 35 E
Hours: April-September: 10 am-6:15 pm, Sun 12-6:15 pm; October-March: 10 am-5 pm, Sun 125:15 pm Last admission 30 minutes before closing. Closed January 1, May 1, December 25 and during some religious services.
Fees: There are a wide range of entry fees from about 7.5 Euros for adults to free for children and the unemployed.
Metro: Basilique de Saint-Denis. Follow the signs after exiting.
The Cathedral Basilica of Saint-Denis is the royal burial place of French kings and queens. The site of the cathedral was first used as a Gallo-Roman cemetery in late Roman times, and then a small church was built around the end of the fifth century. In the seventh century Dagobert I built a larger edifice and supposedly moved the relics of Saint Denis, the patron saint of France, to the church. The traditional story goes that Saint Denis became a martyr and saint after his head was lopped off by followers of the Roman emperor Decius around AD 250, but, undeterred, Saint Denis continued preaching, holding his head in his hand and marched another six miles before finishing and collapsing at what became the site of the Basilica of Saint-Denis. There are a number of poetic and gruesome depictions of the event portrayed in paintings and artwork throughout France.
The church underwent a complete rebuilding under the direction of Abbot Suger (ca. 1081-1151) starting in 1135. The actual architect(s) are unknown but Suger is credited with initiating the project. The result is widely heralded as the first monumental masterpiece of Gothic architecture (at the time called French Style). The Basilica of Saint-Denis was dedicated on June 11, 1144. The basic form of the building is essentially the same today as it was then although numerous internal changes and modifications have occurred throughout the ensuing years.
A second, revised edition of The Tenth Muse, titled Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning, Full of Delight, will be published in 1678, six years after the author’s death. Stockton Metro Map As Pattie Cowell comments in her essay on Bradstreet, which appears in the fourth edition of The Heath Anthology of Country Literature, edited by Paul Lauter, this later work develops from the conventional public verse of the first edition to more private themes of family, love, nature, sorrow, faith, and resignation. 1662 The Reverend Michael Wigglesworth, minister to the town of Malden, Massachusetts, publishes The Day of Doom; or, A Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment. Inspired by a dream he had ten days after the death of his father, The Day of Doom is an epic poem in which Wigglesworth describes Judgment Day in vivid detail and illustrates the urgent need for repentance, as well as the promise of redemption. The poem is an instant bestseller; the entire press run of the first edition (1,800 copies) is sold out within the year.
