Abbey of Saint-Denis

The Abbey of Saint-Denis is a Benedictine monastery in Saint-Denis.

History
The abbey was founded in 630 for Benedictine monks by, and soon became one of the most important of its kind in France. Kings of France tended to pray at the abbey before leaving for a war or crusade, and several queens and daughters of kings also spent part of their lives there. The abbots would serve as advisors to the monarchy, the most famous being Suger, who discovered a First Civilization temple underneath the Basilica of Saint-Denis.

During the French Revolution, anti-royalist revolutionaries destroyed the royal tombs in Saint-Denis. One of the monks, Dom Poirier, wrote a list of artifacts stolen from the tombs. The monks were eventually thrown out of the abbey, which was then taken over by mercenaries under the command of Philippe Rose. Rose worked for Napoleon Bonaparte to find an artifact in the temple under the basilica. The mercenaries took the list and the relics mentioned in it, keeping them at the abbey. According to rumors, they then sold the treasures. In August 1794, the exiled Assassin Arno Dorian infiltrated the abbey library to recover Dom Poirier's list.

Reference

 * Assassin's Creed: Unity - Dead Kings