Begun on top of the remains of a cemetery in 475 A.D., the church of Saint Denis was built to house the relics of its patron saint. From the 10th Century until the 18th, the remains of the French kings were buried there. The basilica is also notable for its architectural redesign, led by the Abbot Suger in 1135. Suger was an influential counselor to the kings and the foremost historian of his times, as well as the abbot of Saint Denis. His restoration of the basilica transformed it into the first Gothic church. Where he discovered such fantastic architecture is unknown.* The basilica was completed after the Abbot's death in 1281. In 1793, the Convention ordered the destruction of the Tombs of Kings and the royal necropolis was desecrated by anti-royalist revolutionaries. The graves were destroyed, rotting corpses exposed, jewelry and bones unearthed and the bodies of the kings were tossed out into the streets.
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* Oh no you don't. Warning bells going off. Sounds like the origins of the discovery are something Abstergo wants to bury.
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Citizens of the time were traumatized to see figures who had been considered divine violated to such a degree.