Rebuilding at St Denis

In 2020 I wrote about the proposal to rebuild of missing north-west tower and spire of the Abbey of St Denis. My post can be seen at Restoring St Denis

In it I write enthusiastically in favour of the scheme, and it is one, like the rebuilding of the Frauenkirke in Dresden or watching videos of the ongoing restoration of Wentworth Woodhouse in my home area, that brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye. Such is the impact upon me of such restorations that so defiantly resist the destructive urges of recent times.

St Denis as it is now and as it is hoped it will be

Image:FSSPX News

I am not the only person to feel enthusiastic about the project as can be seen from the Reddit post at From the ArchitecturalRevival community on Reddit: The Basilique de Saint-Denis's Northern tower will be rebuilt, I'm so glad ! It's a really important church in French history as it was a the resting place of many kings and queens before the Revolution. They're currently running archaeological digs before starting.

There are those who are not in favour as reported by The Times in French academics at odds over €25m plans to rebuild spire of Basilica of Saint-Denis. and as set out by one critic, founder of La Tribune de l’Art quoted in The Connexion at Rebuilding church’s long lost tower is ‘historic lie’

This reminds me somewhat of the reaction in this country of that pioneering conservation group the Society for the Protection of Ancient Monuments who withdrew their intended donation towards the restoration of the west front of Wells Cathedral because the Dean and Chapter commissioned a new statue of Christ in to replace the damaged one, reduced as it was only to waist height, of the top of the west front. Leaving it as a ruin was seen by the Society as preferable to restoring the figure of Christ on the front of a functioning cathedral.

Whilst I can appreciate some of the reservations expressed by dissenters at St Denis I remain completely convinced this is the right thing to do. The foundations have been found to be secure after all, and the threat to the Merovingian era graves obviated.  There are detailed drawings from the 1840s, and some at least of the original stonework survives. The taking down of the tower and spire in 1845-6 was meant to be a temporary measure. The delay in rebuilding is an indictment of state control of church buildings, not of the idea. The fact that this planned rebuilding began in the reign of Louis Philippe speaks sufficiently for French bureaucracy, neglect and probably anti-clericalism and anti-royalism.

An article last year in Le Monde covered the excavations of the Merovingian levels and the investigation of the foundations and can be seen at Basilica of Saint-Denis: Newly discovered graves bring back the past

The scheme and debate about it is also outlined on the FSSPX News website at Work Begins on the Spire of Saint-Denis

However the nay-sayers appear to have been held at bay, and scheme does seem to be going ahead, albeit rather slowly. A report covers trading new stonemasons at Masons are restoring the church where France's kings were buried for centuries

The rebuilding is entirely privately funded and looks to attract other funding from visitors whilst they work is carried out. This has been found to be a successful fundraising method in France. The hope  is the building work will prove a means of drawing visitors to Saint Denis and thereby benefit the local economy and community. St Denis is noted as a run-down area, with a high immigrant population and a poor reputation with outsiders. One hears stories of intending visitors to the Abbey being advised against such a visit by Parisian hoteliers, or telling them to just visit the Basilica and then to come away. Some of this is covered in a 2017 article on Medieval Histories, which has links to some French websites. It can be seen at Rebuilding or Restoring the spire of Saint-Denis

Wikipedia has a good illustrated history of the fabric of the Abbey, including unrealised proposals for Bonapartist and Orleanist crypts, and of its place in the history of France and of art and architecture at Basilica of Saint-Denis

The misfortunes inflicted upon this great and noble building from the end of the medieval era until the end of the Ancien Regime is outlined in Deterioration and first renovations of the Saint-Denis Basilica. Then followed the horrific ransacking of the royal tombs and remains in 1793.

As a building the Abbey has suffered much from those with wicked intentions and from those with misguided if well intentioned ones. This rebuilding is not - it is positive, it is renewing and restoring one of the most important buildings in the history of France and of Christian Art.

St Denis Pray for this scheme and its completion, and continue to pray for his shrine church.

A move to take King Charles X and his family to St Denis

A friend has drawn my attention to an article in The Guardian about a proposal to move the bodies of King Charles X, King Louis XIX and Queen Marie-Thérèse from their presnt resting place in Slovenia to St Denis. The article can be read at France calls for remains of King Charles X to be returned from Slovenia

The association with this laudable aim was founded last September and their website can be seen at  http://www.leretourdecharlesx.fr  - which I have added to the sidebar. 

 

King Charles X

Image:teaattrianon

Whatever comes of this initiative it is clear that King Charles and his family, both in life and death, were fated to spend a long time in exile.

King John I of France

Today is the seventh centenary of the death of King John I of France. The son of King Louis X and his Queen Clemence of Hungary, he was born several months after his father's death in June 1316. My post about him can be seen at King Louis X. A regency had ensued as the realm awaited the birth of a male or female heir.

Being born as King is a distinction he shares with King Ladislas V of Hungary and King Alfonso XIII of Spain. The infant King's reign was to be very short, as he was born on November 15th and died on  November 20th 1316. His rapid demise led to accusations at the time of foul play, and Countess Mahaut of Artois was one of those alleged to be responsible. Another tradition has a story of the royal infant being smuggled away and replaced by another baby - that is to be found in Druon's novels about the later Capetians.

Effigy of King John I of France at St Denis

Image:pinterest.com

King John I had the shortest reign of any French monarch unless that of King Louis XIX for twenty minutes or so during the July Revolution in 1830 is accepted - I would be inclined to see that as asituation of duress, and that King Charles X remained the legitimate monarch until his death in 1836 and that he was then succeeded by King Louis XIX until his death in 1844 and the undoubted inheritance at that point of King Henri V.

The death of King John was to be of real significance - for the first time the succession did not go from father to son, and the acceptance of his uncle as King Philip V rather than King Louis X's daughter by his first marriage Jeanne ( Louis had doubts as to her legitimacy, although she did eventually succeed at Queen of Navarre - see Joan_II_of_Navarre ) took France towards developing the Salic law to regulate the succession. There is a biography of  King Philip V at Philip V of France.
Both King Philip V and his younger brother and successior King Charles IV sought to produce a male heir but had only daughters, and in 1328 the succession passed to King Philip VI, by-passing the arguable claim of King Edward III through his mother, Queen Isabella, sister to the previous Kings - but that is another story...

The effigies of King Philip V, of Queen Jeanne of Evreux, third wife of King Charles IV, and of King Charles IV in St Denis

Image: Pinterest - basilique-de-saint-denis

King Louis X

Today is the seventh centenary of the death of King Louis X of France in 1316. He was 26, and had been King for little more than eighteen months. There is an online life of the King at Louis X of France


His tomb is in the abbey at St Denis. Here are two photographs of the head of the effigy:

Image: kornbluthphoto.com

Image:alamy

Image:themcs.org

King Louis X appears in the first three of Maurice Druon's series of novels on the last Capetians The Accursed Kings. In them he is not depicted especially favourably, and as a man in awe of his father and then disillusioned by his first wife's adultery. The actor Georges Ser gave a good performance as Louis in the original ORTF production in 1973-4.

The last Capetians

King Philip IV flanked by, left to right, his younger sons Charles - later King Charles IV - and Philip - later King Philip V -, his daughter Queen Isabella, wife of King Edward II, and by King Louis X as King of Navarre, and by his brother Charles Count of Valois, father of King Philip VI.

King Louis does look distinctly shifty, but that may simply be an artistic trait!

Image: Wikipedia

I suspect one could have a more favourable view of the King, and also allow for the pressures upon him - personal in respect of his marriages and concern for the succession, political in terms of the inevitable reaction following the death of his authoritarian and ruthlessly successful father, socio-economic in that 1315 saw the beginning of a near catastrophic pan-European famine linked to severe weather.

 

King Louis X depicted as King of France and of Navarre

 Image: Britannica.com

 Druon recounts the events leading to the death of Marguerite, Louis' first wife and his marriage to the Angevin princess Clemence of Hungary from Naples and her pregnancy, which was the situationwhen King Louis X died - there had to be a regency until her child was born. The luck of the Capetian dynasty in generating direct male heirs, which had secured their position since the accession of Hugh Capet in 987 was beginning to run out.

 

Quuen Clémence de Hongrie (1293–12 October 1328) 
Queen consort of France and Navarre, she was the second wife of King Louis X of France


Image:pinterest.com

King Louis X has a particular claim to fame in sporting history - he is the first recorded named player of tennis, and the fever which carried him off ( unless, as in Druon's The Poisoned Crown he was indeed poisoned)  seems to have begun with drinking chilled wine after a game of tennis.

Impressions of Saint-Denis

Rorate Caeli yesterday had a post by Kenneth J. Wolfe  about a visit to the royal abbey and basilica of St Denis on the northern edge of Paris. His account of getting there despite the misgivings of others and some fine pictures of this great and historic church can be seen at Saint-Denis

I have travelled past the basilica on the autoroute into Paris, but not so far managed to visit it. One day, perhaps.

St Denis and his companions

Today is by tradition the feast of the mid-third century Bishop of Paris St Denis and his companions in martyrdom SS. Rusticus of Paris and Eleutherius of Paris. For his life and cult, and for details which explain some of the images which follow see the online account at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis

Nowadays here in the Birmingham Archdiocese this is, of course, the feast of Bl.John Henry Newman, so St Denis and his companions, together with St John Leonardi, are commemorated on October 8th.

The Medieval Religion discussion group yielded a fine crop of images. Gordon Plumb posted some stained glass depictions:

Chartres, Cathedrale Notre Dame, Bay 116, St Denis gives the Oriflamme to Jean-Clement de Metz:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/8070019929

Lincoln Cathedral, sII, 1c, c.1225-35:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2259035172

York Minster, nXXXVI, 5b-6b, St Denis between two executioners:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4793957936

Winchester College, Fromond's Chapel, east window, A10:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3453937140
and detail:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3453937140

Bourges, Cathedrale Saint-Etienne, Bay 31, Story of St Denis, c.1517-18:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2218850130
and two details:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2218157075
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2219153140

Genevra Kornbluth added these examples from her files in stone and wood:
http://www.KornbluthPhoto.com/StDenis.html

John Dillon provided a splendid array of images, many of which show St Denis as a cephalaphore
( now you really should know what that means...) and how artists dealt with that subject.

a) as depicted (at left; at centre and left, Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in an early eleventh-century gradual according to the Use of the abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris (Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 384, fol. 117v):

http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht16/IRHT_065156-p.jpg

b) as portrayed in a mid-eleventh-century relief in the entrance hall to the Kirche St. Emmeram in Regensburg, originally the church of a monastery claiming to possess his remains:

http://www.fantomzeit.de/wp-content/uploads/wibald03.jpg

c) as portrayed in high relief (at centre between Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius, all achieving martyrdom) in the mid-twelfth-century sculptures on the tympanum of the Portail des Valois (rebuilt in the 1230s or 1240s; restored in the nineteenth century) of the basilique cathédrale Saint-Denis in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis):

http://france-romane.com/photos/93-st-denis/Cathedrale_St-Denis-086.jpg

d) as portrayed in high relief (at centre between Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in a mid-twelfth-century walrus ivory plaque from a portable altar in the Musée du Louvre, Paris:

http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/90-006373-2C6NU0HLVYSG.html

e) as portrayed in high relief (at centre) in the jambs of the left portal of the south porch (between 1194 and 1230) of the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame in Chartres:

http://tinyurl.com/4o6rjl

Detail view:

http://tinyurl.com/4zncmm

f) as depicted (at left) in an earlier thirteenth-century window (1228-1231) of the south transept clerestory of the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame in Chartres (not to miss the important bibliography cited this page's "description" tab):

http://tinyurl.com/3v5epn

g) as portrayed in an earlier thirteenth-century statue on a choir screen in Bamberg's Dom St. Peter und St. Georg (consecrated, 1237):
http://tinyurl.com/69dhonr

h) as depicted (at right at the foot of the page; at left, St. Lambert of Maastricht) in a later thirteenth-century psalter and book for hours according to the Use of Liège (ca. 1251-1300; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 G 17, fol. 82v):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76g17%3A082v

i) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century window (c. 1280) in the Stadtkirche St. Dionys in Esslingen am Neckar:

http://tinyurl.com/yfa8loy

j) as depicted (at centre betw. Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius, all achieving martyrdom) as in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the Legenda aurea (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 142v):
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000923A.jpg

k) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Piatus of Seclin [ Feast day Oct.1st] ) in the late thirteenth-century (c. 1285-1290) Livre d'images de Madame Marie (Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 84v):

http://tinyurl.com/y8v48ko

l) as depicted on a panel of the fourteenth-century rood screen of St Andrew, Hempstead (Norfolk):

http://tinyurl.com/4q7jgt

m) as portrayed in a fourteenth-century pilgrim's badge in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny), Paris:

http://tinyurl.com/obtg2cb

n) as portrayed (with the better preserved Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in an earlier fourteenth-century marble sculpture (c. 1301-1326; formerly part of an altarpiece) in the Musée du Louvre, Paris:

http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/13-550042-2C6NU05JQU03.html

Detail view:

http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/13-550043-2C6NU05JQS9J.html

o) as portrayed in high relief (martyrdom; cephalophory) on an earlier fourteenth-century boss (c. 1301-1350) in the cloister of the cathedral church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in Norwich:



http://tinyurl.com/o4rgjxc

p) as depicted in the illuminated Vita et passio sancti Dionysii in Latin verse (with Boitbien's translation in French prose) presented to King Philip V in 1317 by an abbot of Saint-Denis (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 2090-2092):
1) seated; at left, Sts. Antoninus and Santoninus; at right, Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius (BnF, ms. Français 2091, fol. 125r):

http://tinyurl.com/yk9773y

2) appearing with Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius before the prefect Fescennius (BnF, ms. Français 2092, fol. 1r):

http://expositions.bnf.fr/fouquet/grand/f634.htm

q) as portrayed in a polychromed earlier fourteenth-century walnut-wood statue from Köln (ca. 1320) in that city's Schnütgen-Museum:

http://tinyurl.com/npqychy

r) as depicted (scenes of his life and and suffering; the last also depicting the martyrdom of Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (c. 1326-1350; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fols. 202r, 203v, 204r, 204v, 205v, 206v, 207v):
http://tinyurl.com/ylrytq7
http://tinyurl.com/yllhhq9
http://tinyurl.com/ykgrryk
http://tinyurl.com/yfrz7hr
http://tinyurl.com/yzbemgu
http://tinyurl.com/yfnbkse
http://tinyurl.com/ylppvlk

s) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy, from the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1348; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 275v):

http://tinyurl.com/ykxkqol

t) as depicted in a panel of a later fourteenth-century glass window in the north transept of the Basilica St. Valentinus und Dionysius in Kiedrich (Lkr. Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis) in Hessen:

http://tinyurl.com/3pgesej

The panel's context in the window:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hen-magonza/4849130575/

u) as depicted in a later fourteenth-century missal for the Use of Paris (after 1375?; Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 411, C fol. 67r):

http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht17/IRHT_08472-p.jpg

v) as depicted (at left; at centre and right, Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius; all achieving martyrdom) in a later fourteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1380; Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 1729, fol. 262v):

http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht16/IRHT_068254-p.jpg

w) as portrayed in a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century pilgrim's badge in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny), Paris:

http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/97-011834-2C6NU0S38BSY.html

x) as depicted (betw. Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in the early fifteenth-century Hours of René of Anjou (ca. 1410; London, BL, MS Egerton 1070, fol. 104r; image expandable):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=48351

y) as depicted in two illuminations in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (c. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, fols. 364r and 367v):
1) Preaching (third from left, after Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius; fol. 367v):

http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054227-p.jpg

2) Martyrdom (fourth from left, after Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius; fol. 364r):

http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054223-p.jpg

z) as depicted (at left, receiving communion from Jesus while imprisoned; at right, undergoing martyrdom along with Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) by Henri Bellechose on an early fifteenth-century altarpiece (paid for in 1416) in the Museé du Louvre in Paris:

http://tinyurl.com/3rey5zj

aa) as depicted in a full-page illumination of French or English workmanship, attributed to the Master of Sir John Fastolf's Hours, in an earlier fifteenth-century Book of Hours (ca. 1430-1440; Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, ms. 5, fol. 35v):

http://tinyurl.com/yhcuuh5

Detail view (D.'s severed head):

http://tinyurl.com/ylooxrf

bb) as portrayed in a later fifteenth-century polychromed limestone statue (c. 1460-1470) in the Bode-Museum, Berlin:

http://tinyurl.com/4gvkeg

cc) as depicted (martyrdom and, in the upper register, cephalophory) in a later fifteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language translation by Jean de Vignay (c. 1480-1490; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 245, fol. 135r):

http://tinyurl.com/yg4vhdu

dd) as depicted (between Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in a late fifteenth-century breviary according to the Use of Langres (after 1481; Chaumont, Mediathèque de Chaumont, ms. 33, fol. 456r):

http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_097055-p.jpg

ee) as depicted in a hand-colored woodcut in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle; 1493) at fol. CIXv:

http://tinyurl.com/9ghdm8w

ff) as portrayed in high relief on a polychromed and gilt panel of a late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century altarpiece (ca. 1490-1510) in the Filialkirche Hl. Leonhard in Pesenbach (Oberösterreich):

http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7017908.JPG

gg) as depicted (at right; at left, St. Sebastian) on a panel of the late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century winged altar (c. 1497-1507) in the Pfarrkirche Hl. Remigius in Gampern (Oberösterreich):

http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7017792.JPG

hh) as portrayed in high relief (at far left) on the central panel of the late fifteenth-century Vierzehn-Nothelfer-Altar (1498) in the Münster St. Marien und Jakobus in Heilsbronn (Lkr. Ansbach):

http://tinyurl.com/pcnarog

Detail view:

http://tinyurl.com/qbceeza

ii) as portrayed in high relief on an early sixteenth-century stall end (between 1501 and 1507) in the choir of the St. Martins-Kirche in Memmingen:

http://tinyurl.com/nahwgj9

jj) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Margaret) by Vicente Macip in the central panel of his early sixteenth-century altarpiece (c. 1510) in the capilla de San Dionisio y Santa Margarita in Valencia's catedral de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora:

http://tinyurl.com/3bbdu8b

kk) as depicted by the Master of Messkirch on a panel from a dismembered earlier sixteenth-century altarpiece (c. 1535-1540) in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart:

http://tinyurl.com/pd6m447


John Dillon subsequently posted two additional images:

Dionysius as depicted in one of four panels of a full-page illumination in the late twelfth-century so-called Bible of Saint Bertin (ca. 1190-1200; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 5, fol. 28v):
http://www.wga.hu/art/zgothic/miniatur/1151-200/3french/22french.jpg
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f5%3A028v_min_a2

Dionysius (martyrdom) as depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century prayer book from Brabant (ca. 1430-1440; Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, ms. W.164, fol. 171r):

http://tinyurl.com/ptyydjh

To all those I would add this image from the mid-fifteenth century east window of the church of St Denys in York

Image: pinterest/Roger Walton on Flickr

Meanwhile the New Liturgical Movement had an interesting post about the celebration of Mass in Greek by the monks of St Denis in honour of the Greek origin of their patron. The article is by Gregory DiPippo and can be read at The Greek Mass of St Denys of Paris

Uneasy lies the head

Following on from my recent posts about the positive identification of the skeleton of King Richard III and about the drawing of the skull of King Richard II a German friend has pointed out to me an online article about what is thought or claimed to be the head of King Henri IV of France. The article can be viewed here. 

I have posted about this particular royal body part before in December 2010 in King Henri's head.

King Henri IV

Image: Bookstove.com

The King's body was, like that of the other Kings of France sacrilegiously disinterred from St Denis in 1793, and when it was reburied in 1817 in the abbey the head was found to be missing. This head would appear to be that of the King. From what I have read the identification looks very probable, and it is unfortunate that the matter has now been caught up in controversy over the veracity of a book about the discovery, and indeed in differing responses from the rival claimants to the French throne, who would be King Henri VII or King Louis XX. 

If it is adjudged to be in truth the head of the first Bourbon King of France then it would indeed be right and proper for it to be reburied at St Denis. Until then, like the bones of St Edward the Martyr did for so many years in this country, it remains in a bank vault.

St Denis

Were today not Sunday, and were it not also the feast of Bl.John Henry Newman, we might well be observing the feast of St Denis and his companions, protomartyrs of France.

His burial place is, of course, the great basilica of St Denis north of Paris, the burial place of French Kings and their families, and often presented as the first gothic church. Despite the appalling sacrilege committed there during the French Revolution and the drastic restoration by Viollet le Duc in the nineteenth century it must surely be one of the most evocative, moving buildings in France. I have only seen it in the distance, driving past on the motorway, but that was enough to make the hairs on the back of my neck tingle.

The west front of the Basilica.
The medieval north-west tower and spire were demolished during the mid-nineteenth century 'restoration' of the building.

Image: Paris4Travel.com

Devotion to St Denis was reflected in the art of medieval France. Here is a suitably gruesome image of his death, commissioned by Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy for the Charterhouse at Champmol in 1416.

The Last Communion and Martyrdom of St Denis
Henri Bellechose, 1416
The Louvre

Image: Wikipedia

Closer to my own home one of my favourites amongst the historic churches of York is St Denys in Walmgate. It is rather off the tourist route, on the wrong side of the River Foss, and when I used to visit it was not open to the casual visitor - you had to seek out the key holder. As the link above indicates it is only half the size it once was and has lost its spire, but within is some wonderful medieval stained glass, including a fine fifteenth century figure of the patron in cephalaphoric mode in the east window.

St Denis carrying his head from Montartre to his chosen burial place
Stained glass of circa 1452-55

Image: St Denys church website

There is more about the glass by following the link on the parish website. Also in the church is the indent of the brass to the third Earl of Northumberland, killed fighting on the Lancastrian side at the battle of of Towton in 1461. The York inn of the Percy Earls of Northumberland lay in the parish. If you are in York I do urge you to seek out this fascinating church.