Saint-Denis (redirected from Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis)

Saint-Denis, city, France

Saint-Denis (săN-dənē`), city (1990 pop. 90,806), Seine–Saint-Denis dept., N central France. It is an industrial suburb N of Paris. Metals, chemicals, machinery, electronics, and food products are the major manufactures. A large number of immigrants, especially Muslims from former French colonies, are concentrated there. Saint-Denis was founded early in the Christian era (presumably on the site where St. Denis fell and was buried) and grew rapidly as a place of pilgrimage. In 626, King Dagobert I built a Benedictine abbey near the chapel housing the tomb; this abbey became the richest and most famous in France. Around 750 a new sanctuary was begun by Pepin the Short and finished by Charlemagne. Joan of Arc blessed her weapons at the abbey, and it was there that Abelard became a monk. The abbey's banner, the oriflamme, was the royal standard of France from the reign of Louis VI (early 12th cent.) to that of Charles VI (early 15th cent.). In the 12th cent. the famous basilica was built under the supervision of Abbé Suger, the abbot of Saint-Denis and a minister of Louis VI and Louis VII. Devastated during the French Revolution, the abbey was restored, with later work by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Saint-Denis was the first cathedral considered essentially Gothic in construction and was the prototype of Senlis, Chartres, and other cathedrals. Within the cathedral are the tombs of many kings and leading personages of France. Particularly remarkable are the tombs of Francis I by Philibert Delorme and of Henry II by Germain Pilon. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are buried in the crypt. The abbey is now a school for daughters of members of the Legion of Honor. Other points of interest in the city include a museum of gold and silver wares and the Municipal Museum.

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Saint-Denis, city, Réunion

Saint-Denis, city (1990 pop. 122,875), capital of the French overseas department of Réunion. It is a port on the Indian Ocean at the mouth of the St.-Denis River and exports sugar and rum. St.-Denis is Réunion's largest city and its administrative, communications, and economic center. Industry is related to food processing for local consumption. Arabs play a leading role in the city's commerce. The Institute for Legal, Economic, and Political Studies (1950) is there. St.-Denis was founded in the late 17th cent. as a French way station to Asia.

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Saint-Denis

City (pop., 1999: 85,832), northern France. Now a suburb of Paris, until the mid-19th century it was only a small township centred on its famous abbey church, which had been the burial place of French kings. King Dagobert I founded the abbey in the 7th century and built it over the tomb of St. Denis, patron saint of France. Abbot Suger built there a new basilica which later transformed Western architecture from the Romanesque to the Gothic; most late-12th-century French cathedrals, including Chartres, are based on that of Saint-Denis. Remarkable tombs found there include those of Louis XII, Anne of Brittany, Henry II, and Catherine de Médicis. The city is now an industrial centre.

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Saint-Denis

City (pop., 1999: 131,557), capital of the French overseas department of Réunion, in the western Indian Ocean. It lies in a basin at the mouth of the St.-Denis River on the northern coast of the island, wedged between the ocean and a mountain rising abruptly behind it. It was originally the main port of Réunion, but an artificial harbour at Le Port, on the northwestern coast, replaced it in the 1880s. It is primarily an administrative town.

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Saint-Denis

1. a town in N France, on the Seine: 12th-century Gothic abbey church, containing the tombs of many French monarchs; an industrial suburb of Paris. Pop.: 85 832 (1999)

2. the capital of the French overseas region of Réunion, a port on the N coast. Pop.: 131 557 (1999)