Basilica of St Denis

INTRODUCTION:

        一般认为第一座真正的哥特式教堂是巴黎郊区的圣丹尼教堂。法国早期哥特式教堂的代表作是巴黎圣母院，法国哥特式建筑盛期的代表作是亚眠主教堂 ，还有兰斯主教堂和沙特尔主教堂，它们与亚眠主教堂和博韦主教堂一起，被称为法国四大哥特式教堂。英国的索尔兹伯里主教堂和坎特伯雷教堂。德国最早的哥特式教堂之一科隆主教堂，乌尔姆主教堂。意大利最著名的哥特式教堂是米兰大教堂。 

       The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis (French: Cathédrale royale de Saint-Denis, or simply Basilique Saint-Denis, previously the Abbaye de Saint-Denis) is a large medieval abbey church in the city of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of unique importance historically and architecturally, as its choir completed in 1144 is considered to be the first  medieval Gothic architecture ever built.
  
        The site originated as a Gallo-Roman cemetery, in late Roman times - the archeological remains still lie beneath the  cathedral; the people buried there seem to have had a faith that was a mix of Christian and pre-Christian beliefs and practices.  Around 475 St. Genevieve purchased some of the land and built a church. In the 7th century, the church was replaced by a much  grander construction, on the orders of Dagobert I; it is claimed that Dagobert also moved the body of Saint Denis, a patron  saint of France, to the building.

        The church became a place of pilgrimage and the burial place of the French Kings, with nearly every king from the 10th to  the 18th centuries being buried there, as well as many from previous centuries. (It was not used for the coronations of kings, that function being reserved for the Cathedral of Reims; however, queens were commonly crowned there.) "Saint-Denis" soon became  the abbey church of a growing monastic complex.

         In the 12th century the Abbot Suger rebuilt portions of the abbey church using innovative structural and decorative  features. In doing so, he is said to have created the first truly Gothic building. The basilica's 13th-century nave is also the  prototype for the Rayonnant Gothic style, and provided an architectural model for cathedrals and abbeys of northern France, England and other countries.