The recumbent statues, one by one

The transi, first of all

If you only remember one word from this page, let it be this one. A transi is the statue of the naked, emaciated body placed beneath the clothed effigy. The same sovereign is shown twice : above, in glory, crowned, in prayer ; below, as a corpse, with a hollowed stomach, protruding ribs, and an open mouth. Children stop dead in front of these sculptures, and adults still talk about them on the metro ride home. It’s not a gratuitous effect : it’s the Renaissance placing side by side what the monarchy claims to be and what the body becomes. I discuss it on the page about visiting with children, because it’s exactly what captivates eight-to-twelve-year-olds.

Dagobert, 13th century

The monument of Dagobert, who died in 639, was sculpted six centuries after his death. It depicts, in superimposed scenes like a comic strip, the journey of the king’s soul : demons carry it away in a boat, Saint Denis intervenes, and the soul is saved. You can spend ten minutes following the registers from bottom to top. It’s also the monument that best illustrates the purpose of the necropolis : to tell a story, not just to preserve a body. The explanation is on the why the kings are here page.

Clovis and Childebert

Two Merovingian figures, also sculpted long after their deaths, during the major 13th-century campaign commissioned to align the reigns. These are not portraits : they are symbols. Smooth faces, attributes, identical poses. What mattered at the time of their creation was that they were there, in a line, and that the line stretched far back.

Charles V the Wise

Here, the change is visible to the naked eye. Charles V is the first whose effigy resembles someone : a long nose, heavy eyelids, a distinctive mouth. Funerary sculpture ceases to be an emblem and becomes a portrait. When you move from Clovis to Charles V in just a few metres, you traverse two centuries of art history without leaving the transept.

Louis XII and Anne of Brittany

The Renaissance double tomb, and for many visitors the highlight of the visit. A whole marble structure, with the two sovereigns kneeling in prayer on top, and inside, lying down, their naked transis. You have to lean in to see them. The body of Anne of Brittany, with the embalming incision sculpted into the marble, is one of the most striking and unsettling things in the monument. Standing before this piece, you understand why it’s called the world’s greatest collection of funerary sculpture.

Francis I and Claude of France

A sculpted triumphal arch, literally : the tomb borrows the form of an ancient Roman monument. Worshippers at the top, transis below, battle bas-reliefs on the sides. It’s the largest piece in the transept and the one where groups linger the longest. The included guided tour, described on the guided tours page, devotes real time to it : it’s the kind of tomb you don’t fully appreciate without someone pointing out what to look at.

Henri II and Catherine de Médicis

Same principle, another couple, and a complicated commission story: during her lifetime, Catherine de Médicis had her own transi made and remade until it suited her. Look at the two levels in order, the praying figures then the transis, not the other way around: that is the meaning the sculpture intended to convey.

Bertrand du Guesclin, the intruder

The Constable of France was not a king. Yet he is here, buried at the feet of the king, with his recumbent figure. This is the most visible trace of the ten or so servants of the monarchy buried in the necropolis alongside forty kings, twenty-six queens and sixty princes and princesses. The full count is available on who is buried.

And Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette

They do not have a medieval recumbent figure but two funerary praying statues, commissioned by Louis XVIII after the return of their remains in January 1815, and created by Edme Gaulle and Pierre Petitot. Different style, different century, and an obvious political function. See the royal couple's page.

Where they are located in the tour

The transept and the ambulatory, after Suger’s choir, before descending to the crypt.
The complete order is on what to see, in order, and what remains beneath the slabs is on the crypt and the ossuary.

View the recumbent figures

Reminder: what you’re booking above is entry to the royal necropolis. The nave, however, remains open without a ticket, as in any church in the diocese.

Frequently asked questions