Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/179

Rh S A I S A I 161 nave are particularly worthy of notice. To the north of the cathedral are the picturesque ruins of the chapel of St Mary's College, founded in 1377. On the other side of the Alan are the remains of the bishop's palace, a masterpiece of Bishop Gower, particularly noteworthy for the beautiful arcade and parapet running round the whole building. It was partly unroofed by Bishop Barlow in 1536. In the centre of the village stands the ancient cross, 28 feet high, the steps of which were restored by Bishop Thirhvall in 1873. The place is without municipal government, its mayor being the officer of the bishop's manorial court. The population of the parish in 1881 was 2053. ST DENIS, a town of France, in the department of Seine, 4| miles north of Paris by the Northern Railway, which there divides into two branches leading respectively to Pontoise and Creil, is now a great manufacturing centre for machinery, boats, railway carriages, chemical products, printed goods, candles, beer, leather, and flour. Many of the works are supplied with water from the Crould and the Rouillon, which there fall into the Seine ; and a canal extends from the Seine to La Villette, the great inner harbour of Paris. In 1881 the population was 43,127. The name and fame of the town are derived from the abbey founded by Dagobert on the spot where St Denis, the apostle of Paris, was interred (see below). The west front was built between 1137 and 1140. The right-hand tower is almost pure Romanesque ; that on the left was Gothic, and its spire was carried to a height of 280 feet, but it was struck by lightning in 1837 and its reconstruc- tion effected in so clumsy a manner that it had to be taken down till it was on a level with the roof of the nave. The rose window, now occupied by a clock face, dates from the 13th century. Under one of the three rows of arches above the main entrance runs an inscrip- tion recording the erection of the church by Suger with abbatial funds and its consecration in 1140. The porch formed by the first three bays of the church contains some remains of the basilica of Pippin the Short. The nave proper (235 feet long and 57 wide) has seven bays, and dates, as well as most of the choir and transepts, from the reign of St Louis. The gallery of the triforium. is of open work and is filled in with glass. The secondary apse (rand- point) and its semicircular chapels (consecrated on llth June 1144) are considered as the first perfected attempt at Gothic. The transepts have fine 13th-century facades, each with two unfinished towers ; if the plan had been fully carried out there would have been six towers besides a central fleche in lead. In the chapels of the nave are the tombs of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany (1591) ; of Henry II. and Catherine de' Medici, a masterpiece by Germain Pilon ; of Louis of Orleans and Valentine of Milan, from the old church of the Celestines at Paris ; of Francis I. and Claude of France, one of the most splendid tombs of the Renaissance, executed under the direction of Philibert Delorme ; and that of Dagobert, which, though considerably dilapidated, ranks as one of the most curious of mediaeval (13th-century) works of art. In the apse some stained glass of the time of Suger still remains. The crypt dates partly from Charlemagne and partly from Suger. In the centre is the vault where the coffin of the dead king used to lie until, to make room for that of his successor, it was removed to its final resting-place. It is at present occupied by the coffin of Louis XVIII., the last sovereign whose body was borne to St Denis and the only one whose ashes have been respected. Besides some fine statues, the crypt contains the Bourbon vault, in which were deposited the remains of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, or at least whatever of them was recoverable from the cemetery of La Madeleine, where the Chapelle Expiatoire now stands. The treasury of St Denis has been despoiled of its richest possessions, including the books now in the National Library ; but it still contains crosses, altar-pieces, and reliquaries, notably those of St Denis and his two companions, Rusticus and Eleutherius, the three patrons of the basilica. The chapter of St Denis is usually composed of emeritus bishops with the title of canons ; but the institution is about to be abolished (1886). St Denis possesses a fine town-house and a poor- house (300 beds). Its three forts formed part of the Parisian enceinte in 1870-71, and from 23d to 26th January 1871 the place was bombarded by the Prussians, who did considerable damage to the basilica. St Denis, the aiicient Catulliacum, was a town of no pretensions till the founding of its abbey. The process of rebuilding begun in the 12th century by Abbe Suger was completed under Philip the Bold. In the meantime St Louis caused mausoleums to be erected with figures of the princes already buried in the abbey ; and from his time onwards to Henry II. every monarch in suc- cession had his monument. Louis XIV. reduced the abbey to the rank of a priory ; and at the Revolution it was suppressed, the tombs being violated and the church sacked (1793). Two years later all the remains and fragments that could be recovered were collected in the museum of the Petits Augustiues at Paris ; but the bronze tombs had been melted down, the stained -glass windows shattered, and large numbers of interesting objects stolen or lost. Napoleon established in the monastery a school for daughters of the members of the Legion of Honour, which has continued to flourish. Louis XVIII. caused all the articles belonging to St Denis to be brought back from the museums to their original site, and added numerous other monuments from the suppressed abbeys. But it was not till after 1848 that, under the intelligent direction of Viollet le Due, the damage inflicted by revolutionist and unskil- ful restorer was repaired and the basilica recovered its original appearance. Charles the Bold instituted the famous fair of Laudit, which was transferred from the neighbouring plain to St Denis itself in 1552, and is still held in the town. Sheep and parchment were formerly the staples. The abbey was pillaged by Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, in 1358, by the Burguudians and Flemings in 1411, and by the English in 1430. A sanguinary battle, in which the Catholic leader Constable Anne de Montmorency found victory and death, was fought between Huguenots and Catholics iu. the neighbourhood on 10th November 1567. ST DENIS, the capital of REUNION (q.v.). ST DIE, a town of France, chef-lieu of an arrondisse- ment and a bishop's see in the department of Vosges, is situated on the right bank of the Meurthe, 1030 feet above the sea, on the railway from Luneville (32 miles north- west) to Epinal (38 miles south-west). One portion of the town was rebuilt after the fire of 1757 in the regular and monumental style of Nancy; the other has a somewhat mean appearance. Several Alsatian manufacturers having emigrated to St Die on the annexation of their country to Germany, the town has made great progress since 1871, and now possesses weaving factories, bleacheries, hosiery factories, engineering works, a tile work, and an extensive brewery. The cathedral has a Romanesque nave (10th century) and a Gothic choir; the portal, in red sandstone, dates from the 18th century. A fine cloister, recently restored and containing a beautifully executed stone pulpit, leads to the Petite Eglise or Notre Dame, a well-preserved specimen of early Romanesque. Other points of interest are the library, the museum, belonging to the Societe Philomathique Vosgienne, the large schools, and the public fountains. The town commands an exten- sive view of the Vosges and is a convenient centre for ex- cursions. The population in 1881 was 12, 677 (15, 312 in the commune). St Die (Dcodatum, Theodntn, S. Dcodnti Fanum) grew up round a monastery founded in the 6th century by St Deodatus of Nevers, who gave up his episcopal functions in order to retire to this place. In the 10th century the community became a chapter of canons ; and among those who subsequently held the rank of provost or dean were Giovanni de' Medici (afterwards Pope Leo X. ) and several princes of the house of Lorraine. Among the extensive privileges enjoyed by them was that of coining money. Though they co- operated iii building the town walls, the canons and the dukes of XXL 21