“ St Denis, an important junction on the northern railway, stands in a plain on the right bank of the Seine, which is here joined by the canal of St Denis. It has numerous metallurgical works, where railway material, naval engines and the like are constructed, distilleries of spirits, glass works, potteries and manufactories of drugs, chemical products, oils, nickel plate and pianos. The name and fame of the town are derived from the abbey founded by Dagobert I. on the spot where St Denis, the apostle of Paris, was interred. ”

“ Among the many domains of the abbey was the French Vexin. It was held during the later middle ages by the French kings and vassals of the abbey, and to this fact is due their adoption of the oriflamme or red banner of St Denis as the royal standard. St Louis caused mausoleums to be erected with figures of the princes already buried in the abbey; and from his time to that of Henry II. every monarch in succession, had his monument. Louis XIV. reduced the abbey to the rank of a priory; and at the Revolution it was suppressed, the tombs being violated and the church sacked (1793) . ”

“ The secondary apse (rondpoint) and its semicircular chapels (consecrated in 1144) are considered as the first perfected attempt at Gothic. The transepts have fine façades, the north of the 12th, the south of the 13th century, each with two unfinished towers; if the plan had been fully carried out there would have been six towers besides a central spire in lead. The church contains a series of tombs of the kings and princes of the royal houses of France. ”