The Royal Abbey of St Denis Abbot Suger was closely
associated with the kings of France, and St Denis was the burial place of kings and queens. It suffered badly during the French Revolution: the abbey was completely demolished and the sculpture on the doorway of the church was destroyed. Most of the glass windows were wrecked and the ancient bodies were removed. Somehow, the royal tombs survived and can still be seen in St Denis today.
Figure 2.2 Ribbed vaulting in the nave, Basilica of St Denis.
Gothic Architecture The soaring vertical lines and skeletal structures of Gothic cathedrals soon replaced the massive walls of Romanesque buildings. They first appeared in Paris and the Île-de-France, but spread rapidly to the rest of northern France, in places like Amiens, Chartres, Rouen, Reims, Orléans and Beauvais.
The new ‘French style’ spread to other parts of Europe, like Cologne in Germany and Milan in Italy, as well as to England.
Figure 2.1 St Denis in Paris. A cleaning technique known as micro abrasion was used on the building in 2015. This helped to reveal the many colours in the stone.
Île-de-France is the compact region immediately surrounding Paris. It includes the city and its suburbs as well as several large surrounding towns.
