The abbey church has probably the same disposition, and partly the same walls, as in the time of Clovis. It is without transepts, but has a circular termination. It was only repaired by Robert the Pious, or by Abbot Stephen. The façade is remarkable for its nakedness ; its portal consists of three pointed arches, with small columns and capital, decorated with ivy leaves ; above the middle door is a rose window. The other windows are long and lancet shaped, the whole enclosed by a massive plain pediment. The nave is separated from the nave aisles by eight co lumns; four larger than the others, their capitals truly Lombard, being a mixture of leaves, birds, &c.; the four smaller ones have Acanthus leaves ; upon these caps rest clusters of small pillars and pointed arches, erected by Abbot Stephen, to support the roof. This is an example of the exact shape of the early French churches, with narrow lancet windows, which are rare in that country.
St Denis, or St Dionysius, was reckoned the first preacher of the gospel to the Gauls. The persecutors ordered his body to be thrown into the Seine, but a Pa gan female got possession of it, buried it in a field near Paris, and sowed the field with corn ; she afterwards erect ed a small monument over it, to which the Christians re sorted, and built a church there, about the middle of the third century ; but from its having been rebuilt on a lar ger scale, and endowed by Dagobert, he generally passes for the founder. Felibien places the commencement of the building in 629. It was oblong, with a circular ter mination, marble columns within, and a profusion of Mosaic work : he also built cloisters and offices to the monastery. This church of Dagobert was taken down, and another built by Pepin and Charlemagne, and dedicated in 775. The Normans plundered it in 865. Suger was elected abbot in 1122, being nominated regent of France by Louis VII. on his departure for the Holy Land. Ile restored, added, and embellished it, especially the west front and towers. He discovered excellent stone in a quarry near Pontoise, and procured timber from the forest of Chevreuse, which he marked with his own hand. It was dedicated in 1140.
St Denis had lands in England, i. e. Tinton, in Oxford shire ; Rotherfield, in Sussex ; and D eerhurst, in Glouces tershire. This edifice is externally very lofty, but the west front is deficient in majesty. The chief portal is arched semicircularly, and adorned with sculpture. The walls
have alternately round and pointed arches in half relief, on small pillars, similar to those of Purbeck employed is England : the height of the towers is unequal. In St Denis, there arc three arras of architecture : 1st, The oldest ornaments in France. 2d, Lower church, beneath the chapel of St Denis, is part of the fabric by Pepin and Charlemagne. 3d, The pointed arch. The chapels of the Chevet and western front are the work of Suger ; also the pavement and painted glass. In his time, the columns were Lombard, but the pointed arch appears in every part of his which were about the middle of the 12th century, and are earlier examples than any to be found in England,—St Cross, near Winchester, built in 1132 and 1.136, being considered as too dubious to be admitted as an instance. In England, the earliest mixed style appeared in 1154, under Henry II. The first used in vaults was begun by Roger of York in 1171; the ves tibule of the Temple church in 1184; the western tower of Ely 1189; the choir of Canterbury 1175 and 1180; and two western towers of Durham in 1233 ; the latter being exactly in the style of Suger, at St Denis.
The nave, choir, and transepts of St Denis, by Eudes Clemont, and Mathieu de Vendosine, between the years 1231 and 1281, are equal to Amiens in magnificence and delicacy. The bold elevation which distinguishes the edifices of the French architects, is remarkable in this church, the nave being 90 feet high, and only 39 in width. The workmanship of the buttresses and tracery, is supe rior to Westminster. The upper range of windows fills up the space between the great arches and the vaulting, and are perfectly similar throughout ; they are each 40 feet high, and each divided by four perpendicular mul lions, terminated in arches, which support three six foils or roses; the distance between each is three feet. These are superior to any thing at that time in England. The French had introduced the pointed arch before the mid dle of the 12th, and constructed broad magnificent win dows before the middle of the 13th century. This fine structure had fallen into decay in 1302 ; the vaultings had tumbled in, and the pavement was destroyed.
The crosses erected in 1285, on the road between St Denis and Paris, where Philip III. stopped with the re mains of his father Louis, have also been all destroyed. Queen Eleanor, on whose account Edward I. erected crosses, did not die till 1296.