Chapelle expiatoire

Last updated

Expiatory Chapel
Chapelle expiatoire
La chapelle expiatoire - facade.jpg
Paris department land cover location map.svg
Reddot.svg
Expiatory Chapel
48°52′25.5″N2°19′22.9″E / 48.873750°N 2.323028°E / 48.873750; 2.323028
Location29 rue Pasquier, 8th arrondissement of Paris
Country France
Denomination Roman Catholic
Website Official website
History
StatusMemorial Chapel
Founded1816
Founder(s) Louis XVIII, Duchess of Angoulême
Consecrated January 21, 1824
Architecture
Functional status Museum
Heritage designation Logo monument historique - rouge ombre, encadre.svg Monument Historique PA00088809 [1]
Designated1914
Architectural type church
Construction cost3,000,000 livres
Specifications
Length168 feet (51 m)
Width93.5 feet (28.5 m) [2]

The Chapelle expiatoire ("Expiatory Chapel") [3] is a chapel located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. The chapel was constructed on the grounds where King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette had been buried after they had been guillotined, and it is therefore dedicated to them as an expiation for that act.

Contents

The closest métro station is Saint-Augustin Metro-M.svg Paris Metro 9.svg .

History and construction

The chapel was designed in 1816 by the French Neo-Classical architect Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, who, with his partner Charles Percier, figured among Napoleon's favourite architects. Fontaine's assistant Louis-Hippolyte Lebas oversaw the construction. The chapel was partly constructed on the grounds of the former Madeleine Cemetery, where King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette had been buried after they had been guillotined.

King Louis XVIII shared the 3 million livres expense of building the Chapelle expiatoire with the Duchess of Angoulême. Construction took ten years, and the chapel was inaugurated in 1826 in the presence of King Charles X. When he blessed the cornerstone of the Chapelle expiatoire, Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen, Archbishop of Paris, called in vain for an amnesty of the exiled members of the National Convention.

Building and courtyard

Louis XVI Called to Immortality, Sustained by an Angel, by Francois Joseph Bosio Francois-Joseph Bosio Louis XVI appele.jpg
Louis XVI Called to Immortality, Sustained by an Angel, by François Joseph Bosio
Marie Antoinette supported by Religion, by Jean-Pierre Cortot Chapelle Expiatoire 3, Paris 2010.jpg
Marie Antoinette supported by Religion, by Jean-Pierre Cortot

The Chapelle expiatoire stands on a slight rise. There are two buildings separated by a courtyard which is surrounded by an enclosed cloister-like precinct, a peristyle, that isolates the chapel from the outside world. The building on Rue Pasquier is the entrance. There is an inscription above the entrance, which reads (translated):

King Louis XVIII raised this monument to consecrate the place where the mortal remains of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, transferred on 21 January 1815 to the royal tomb of Saint-Denis, reposed for 21 years. It was finished during the second year of the reign of Charles X, year of grace 1826. [4]

In the courtyard are cenotaphs to those who were known to be buried in this location.

The chapel itself is entered through a pedimented tetrastyle portico, of a sombre Doric order. It contains a domed space at the center of a Greek cross, formed by three coffered half-domed apses with oculi that supplement the subdued natural light entering through the skylight of the main dome. The cubic, semicylindrical and hemispheric volumes recall the central planning of High Renaissance churches as much as they do a Greco-Roman martyrium. White marble sculptures of the king and queen in ecstatic attitudes were made by François Joseph Bosio and Jean-Pierre Cortot. There is also a bas-relief by French sculptor François-Antoine Gérard (who also did some of the other carvings) showing the exhumation and removal of the remains of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the Basilica of St Denis.

The crypt contains a black and white marble altar intended to mark the place where the royal remains were found.

The Chapelle expiatoire is without doubt the most uncompromising late neoclassical religious building of Paris. Chateaubriand found it "the most remarkable edifice in Paris". The chapel's severe geometry is unrelieved by sculpture, as can be seen by the view from rue d'Anjou.

Later history

In 1862, the cypresses which surrounded the chapel were cut down, and a public park (Square Louis XVI) was created around the complex.

In May 1871 the Paris Commune demanded that the Chapel be torn down. This was never put into effect.

Every January 21, a memorial mass is held in the chapel to commemorate the death of Louis XVI.

The Chapel was severely damaged by storm in 2009.

Pendants

Photographs and paintings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis XVI</span> King of France from 1774 to 1792

Louis XVI was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis XVIII</span> King of France from 1814 to 1824

Louis XVIII, known as the Desired, was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 years in exile from France beginning in 1791, during the French Revolution and the First French Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basilica of Saint-Denis</span> Basilica in Saint-Denis, France

The Basilica of Saint-Denis is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of singular importance historically and architecturally as its choir, completed in 1144, is widely considered the first structure to employ all of the elements of Gothic architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conciergerie</span> Medieval building in Paris, France

The Conciergerie is a former courthouse and prison in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, below the Palais de Justice. It was originally part of the former royal palace, the Palais de la Cité, which also included the Sainte-Chapelle. Two large medieval halls remain from the royal palace. During the French Revolution, 2,780 prisoners, including Marie Antoinette, were imprisoned, tried and sentenced at the Conciergerie, then sent to different sites to be executed by the guillotine. It is now a national monument and museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Place de la Concorde</span> Square in Paris, France

The Place de la Concorde is a public square in Paris, France. Measuring 7.6 ha in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Madeleine, Paris</span> Church in the 8th arrondissement of Paris

The Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, or less formally, La Madeleine, is a Catholic parish church on Place de la Madeleine in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was planned by Louis XV as the focal point of the new Rue Royal, leading to the new Place Louis XV, the present Place de la Concorde. It was dedicated in 1764 by Louis XV, but work halted due to the French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte had it redesigned in the Neoclassical style to become a monument to the glory of his armies. After his downfall in 1814, construction as a church resumed, but it was not completed until 1842. The building is surrounded on all four sides by Corinthian columns. The interior is noted for its frescoes on the domed ceiling, and monumental sculptures by François Rude, Carlo Marochetti and other prominent 19th-century French artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Île de la Cité</span> Island in the river Seine, Paris, France

Île de la Cité, 22.5 hectares in size, is one of two natural islands in the Seine, in central Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the area governor for the Roman Empire. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace on the island. In the 12th century, it became an important religious center, the home of Notre-Dame cathedral, and the royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, as well as the city hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu. It is also the site of the city's oldest surviving bridge, the Pont Neuf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château de Vincennes</span> Former fortress and royal residence adjacent to Vincennes, France

The Château de Vincennes is a former fortress and royal residence next to the town of Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris, alongside the Bois de Vincennes. It was largely built between 1361 and 1369, and was a preferred residence, after the Palais de la Cité, of French kings in the 14th to 16th century. It is particularly known for its "donjon" or keep, a fortified central tower, the tallest in Europe, built in the 14th century, and for the chapel, Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes, begun in 1379 but not completed until 1552, which is an exceptional example of Flamboyant Gothic architecture. Because of its fortifications, the château was often used as a royal sanctuary in times of trouble, and later as a prison and military headquarters. The chapel was listed as an historic monument in 1853, and the keep was listed in 1913. Most of the building is now open to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé</span> French royal (1736–1818)

Louis Joseph de Bourbon was Prince of Condé from 1740 to his death. A member of the House of Bourbon, he held the prestigious rank of Prince du Sang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême</span> Madame Royale (1778–1851)

Marie-Thérèse Charlotte was the eldest child of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France, and their only child to reach adulthood. In 1799 she married her cousin Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, the eldest son of Charles, Count of Artois, henceforth becoming the Duchess of Angoulême. She was briefly Queen of France in 1830.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François Joseph Bosio</span> French sculptor

Baron François Joseph Bosio was a Monegasque sculptor who achieved distinction in the first quarter of the nineteenth century with his work for Napoleon and for the restored French monarchy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine</span> French architect

Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine was a French neoclassical architect, interior decorator, designer and artist.

<i>Grand appartement de la reine</i> Apartment in the Palace of Versailles, France

The grand appartement de la reine is the Queen's grand apartment of the Palace of Versailles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapels of Versailles</span> Chapels in the palace of Versailles, France

The present chapel of the Palace of Versailles is the fifth in the history of the palace. These chapels evolved with the expansion of the château and formed the focal point of the daily life of the court during the Ancien Régime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis-Hippolyte Lebas</span> French architect

Louis-Hippolyte Lebas was a French architect working in a rational and severe Neoclassical style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palais de la Cité</span> Palace in Paris, France

The Palais de la Cité, located on the Île de la Cité in the Seine River in the centre of Paris, is a major historic building that was the residence of the Kings of France from the sixth century until the 14th century, and has been the center of the French justice system ever since, thus often referred to as the Palais de Justice. From the 14th century until the French Revolution, it was the headquarters of the Parlement of Paris. During the Revolution it served as a courthouse and prison, where Marie Antoinette and other prisoners were held and tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. Since the early 19th century, it has been the seat of the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris, the Court of Appeal of Paris, and the Court of Cassation. The first of these moved to another Parisian location in 2018, while the other two jurisdictions remain located in the Palais de la Cité as of 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Execution of Louis XVI</span> 1793 public execution of Louis XVI

Louis XVI, former King of France since the abolition of the monarchy, was publicly executed on 21 January 1793 during the French Revolution at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. At his trial four days prior, the National Convention had convicted the former king of high treason in a near-unanimous vote; while no one voted "not guilty", several deputies abstained. Ultimately, they condemned him to death by a simple majority. The execution by guillotine was performed by Charles-Henri Sanson, then High Executioner of the French First Republic and previously royal executioner under Louis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Errancis Cemetery</span> Defunct cemetery in Paris, France

Errancis Cemetery or Cimetière des Errancis is a former cemetery in the 8th arrondissement of Paris and was one of the cemeteries used to dispose of the corpses of guillotine victims during the French Revolution.

Madeleine Cemetery is a former cemetery in the 8th arrondissement of Paris and was one of the four cemeteries used to dispose of the corpses of guillotine victims during the French Revolution. The cemetery was named after Mary Magdalene, known in French as Sainte-Madeleine.

The French Restoration style was predominantly Neoclassicism, though it also showed the beginnings of Romanticism in music and literature. The term describes the arts, architecture, and decorative arts of the Bourbon Restoration period (1814–1830), during the reign of Louis XVIII and Charles X from the fall of Napoleon to the July Revolution of 1830 and the beginning of the reign of Louis-Philippe.

References

  1. Base Mérimée: Chapelle expiatoire, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
  2. The History of Paris: From the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Containing a Description of Its Antiquities, Public Buildings, Civil, Religious, Scientific and Commercial Institutions. Paris: A. and W. Galignani. 1825. pp.  119–120.
  3. expiatoire does not appear in contemporaneous sources; it was added later.
  4. Le roi Louis XVIII a élevé ce monument pour consacrer le lieu où les dépouilles mortelles du roi Louis XVI et de la reine Marie-Antoinette, transférées le 21 janvier 1815 dans la sépulture royale de Saint-Denis, ont reposé pendant 21 ans. Il a été achevé la deuxième année du règne du roi Charles X, l'an de grâce 1826