St+Denis

St. Denis is a city in the northern suburb of Paris France. The city is on the right bank of the Seine. Before industries developed there, it was a small township centred on its abbey church, which had been a place for the kings of France.

King Dagobert founded the abbey and built it over the tomb of St. Denis. The town over time, grew up around the abbey. Abbot Suger built a new basilica for the abbey that adapted part of an earlier church built during the Carolingian Empire. Saint Denis suffered badly in the Hundred Years War. Its 10,000 citizens eventually went down to only 3,000 after the war.

Saint-Denis is home to the royal necropolis of the Basilica of Saint Denis and was also the location of the associated abbey. It is also home to France's national football and rugby stadium, the Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.