The Chapelle expiatoire ("Expiatory Chapel")
[''expiatoire'' does not appear in contemporaneous sources; it was added later.] is a
chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...
located in the
8th arrondissement of Paris,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. The chapel was constructed on the grounds where
King Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...
and
Queen Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child an ...
had been buried after they had been guillotined, and it is therefore dedicated to them.
The closest
métro station is
Saint-Augustin
![Paris Metro 9](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Paris_transit_icons_-_M%C3%A9tro_9.svg)
.
History and construction
The chapel was designed in 1816 by the French
Neo-Classical architect Pierre François Léonard Fontaine
Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
, who, with his partner
Charles Percier, figured among Napoleon's favourite architects. Fontaine's assistant
Louis-Hippolyte Lebas oversaw the construction. The chapel was partly constructed on the grounds of the former
Madeleine Cemetery
*''Cimetière de la Madeleine is also the name of a cemetery in Amiens''
Madeleine Cemetery (in French known as ''Cimetière de la Madeleine'') is a former cemetery in the 8th arrondissement of Paris and was one of the four cemeteries (the others ...
, where
King Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...
and
Queen Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child an ...
had been buried after they had been guillotined.
King Louis XVIII shared the 3 million
livres
The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France.
The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...
expense of building the ''Chapelle expiatoire'' with the
Duchess of Angoulême. Construction took ten years, and the chapel was inaugurated in 1826 in the presence of
King Charles X
Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Loui ...
. When he blessed the cornerstone of the ''Chapelle expiatoire'',
Hyacinthe-Louis de Quelen,
Archbishop of Paris, called in vain for an amnesty of the exiled members of the
National Convention
The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year Nationa ...
.
Building and courtyard
The ''Chapelle expiatoire'' stands on a slight rise. There are two buildings separated by a courtyard which is surrounded by an enclosed cloister-like precinct, a
peristyle
In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=f ...
, that isolates the chapel from the outside world. The building on Rue Pasquier is the entrance. There is an inscription above the entrance, which reads (translated):
In the courtyard are
cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
s to those who were known to be buried in this location.
The chapel itself is entered through a
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
ed tetrastyle portico, of a sombre
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...
. It contains a domed space at the center of a
Greek cross
The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a ''crucifix'' and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' (La ...
, formed by three coffered half-domed
apse
In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...
s with
oculi
An oculus (; ) is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. It is also known as an '' œil-de-boeuf'' from the French, or simply a "bull's- ...
that supplement the subdued natural light entering through the skylight of the main dome. The cubic, semicylindrical and hemispheric volumes recall the central planning of High Renaissance churches as much as they do a
Greco-Roman martyrium. White marble sculptures of the king and queen in ecstatic attitudes were made by
François Joseph Bosio
Baron François Joseph Bosio (19 March 1768 – 29 July 1845) was a Monegasque sculptor who achieved distinction in the first quarter of the nineteenth century with his work for Napoleon and for the restored French monarchy.
Biography
Born in ...
and
Jean-Pierre Cortot. There is also a bas-relief by French sculptor François-Antoine Gérard (who also did some of the other carvings) showing the exhumation and removal of the remains of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the
Basilica of St Denis.
The
crypt contains a black and white marble altar intended to mark the place where the royal remains were found.
The ''Chapelle expiatoire'' is without doubt the most uncompromising late neoclassical religious building of Paris.
Chateaubriand found it "the most remarkable edifice in Paris". The chapel's severe geometry is unrelieved by sculpture, as can be seen by the view from rue d'Anjou.
Later history
In 1862, the cypresses which surrounded the chapel were cut down, and a public park (''Square Louis XVI'') was created around the complex.
In May 1871 the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
demanded that the Chapel be torn down. This was never put into effect.
Every January 21, a memorial mass is held in the chapel to commemorate the death of Louis XVI.
The Chapel was severely damaged by storm in 2009.
Photographs
Image:Chapelle expiatoire Louis XVI mg 4551.jpg,
Image:Chapelle expiatoire Louis XVI mg 4548.jpg,
File:Une messe à la Chapelle expiatoire - Turpin de Crissé.jpg, Mass in the chapel (1835)
Image:Chapelle expiatoire Louis XVI mg 4549.jpg,
Image:Chapelle expiatoire Louis XVI mg 4550.jpg,
Image:Chapelle expiatoire - voutes de la galerie latérale.jpg,
Image:Chapelle expiatoire voute.jpg,
Image:ChapelleExpiatoire.JPG,
References
External links
Chapelle expiatoire on the Centre des Monuments Nationaux websiteMonum: Chapelle ExpiatoireExpiatoire/infoWebsite of novelist Catherine Delors
{{Authority control
1826 establishments in France
Cemeteries in Paris
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1826
Roman Catholic churches in the 8th arrondissement of Paris
Roman Catholic chapels in Paris
Votive churches
Monuments of the Centre des monuments nationaux
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in France