Saint-Denis

Home > Places > Britain, Ireland, France, and the Low Countries > French Political Geography

Saint-Denis , 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.

Saint-Denis, Michel Jacques (1897–1971), French actor and director, who began his career under his uncle Jacques Copeau at the Vieux-Colombier. In 1930 he founded the Compagnie des Quinze, for which he directed Noé, Le Viol de Lucrèce, and La Bataille de la Marne, all by André Obey, as well as a number of other plays, in all of which he himself appeared. The company achieved a great reputation, but was eventually forced to disband, and Saint-Denis settled in London, directing Obey's Noé in translation, with John Gielgud as Noah, in 1935 and the Elizabethan tragi-comedy The Witch of Edmonton at the Old Vic in 1936. He then founded the London Theatre Studio for the training of young actors. It had already made several interesting contributions to the English theatre, one of its graduates being Peter Ustinov, when the outbreak of the Second World War caused it to close down. After working with the French section of the BBC during the war, as Jacques Duchesne, Saint-Denis returned to the theatre, becoming head of the short-lived drama school at the Old Vic. On its demise he returned to France to run the Centre Dramatique de l'Est based on Strasbourg. In 1957 he was appointed artistic adviser to the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in New York in connection with the Lincoln Center, and in 1962 he became general artistic adviser to the RSC, for whom he directed at the Aldwych Theatre in 1965 Brecht's Squire Puntila and his Servant Matti. As a frequent adjudicator of the Dominion Drama Festival in Canada, he also helped in the foundation of the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal in 1960, advising particularly on its basic curriculum and method of training.

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.

Saint‐Denis, Canada, France, Réunion, USA All named after the patron saint of France, bishop of Paris and a martyr who was beheaded near Paris c.250. One of the two towns in France with this name is now a northern suburb of Paris.