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The Abbey Church of Saint-Denis is world renowned as, on the one hand, the place of repose of France's dead kings and queens and, on the other hand, the place of birth of the Gothic style in 1144, when Abbot Suger redesigned the church choir. Visitors to Paris frequently learn this history.
What is less well known is that most of the extant church is a combination of 13th-century and 19th-century architecture, sitting atop a 5th century foundation and an even older cemetery. Saint-Denis has been in constant use and change for over 1500 years. Norman invaders, Medici princesses, the Emperor Napoleon, and once a ragtag troop of actors have all occupied and transformed the structure in their image.
Saint-Denis is not a single building but multiple coextensive edifices. With a careful eye to detail, one can glimpse the rich history of this site's metamorphosis over the centuries and, thereby, the entire history of France as well, from late antiquity to the present day. On our tour, we will move not through space but through time, instead!