Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Tomb of King Dagobert, Saint-Denis


(Photo Credit)

2 comments:

irene said...

I thought the older tombs were all despoiled in the revolution -- is my mind failing? What is the story here?

Jeffrey Smith said...

That's a curious matter. They were all opened and most of the remains were dumped in a pit. Many of the tombs were destroyed, but some were saved for artistic quality. Parts of others were spared by sheer luck.
After common sense was more or less restored, they collected whatever bits and pieces they could and put them back. They also brought in other tombs and parts of tombs from elsewhere, including the effigy of King Leon. What's there now is the flotsam and jetsam collected from the wreck.
As for the remains, they retrieved whatever they could from the pit and brought them back, usually without an exact identification.