Expiatory Chapel: Interior detail, sculpture: Louis XVI Called to Immortality, Sustained by an Angel
Date
Circa 1910
Location
Architecture Library, Hesburgh Libraries
A chapel dedicated to King Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette, although they are formally buried in the Basilica of St Denis. Fontaine's assistant Louis-Hippolyte Lebas oversaw the construction. The chapel was partly constructed on the grounds of the former Madeleine Cemetery where King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette had been buried after they had been guillotined. King Louis XVIII shared the 3 million livres expense of building the Chapelle expiatoire with the Duchess of Angoulême. Construction took ten years, and the chapel was inaugurated in 1826 in the presence of Charles X. White marble sculptures of the king and queen in ecstatic attitudes were made by François Joseph Bosio and Jean-Pierre Cortot.
Our collection information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. If you have spotted an error, please contact Architecture Library, Hesburgh Libraries at asklib@nd.edu.
Also from
Architectural Lantern Slides of France
Abbey Church of Saint Austremonius, Issoire: Overall view of the apsidal end
Abbey Church of the Trinity, Fecamp: Overall view
Abbey Church, Saint-Leu-d'Esserent: Overall view, apsidal end with high chapel on top of five radiating chapels
Abbey of Our Lady of the Assumption, Saint-Brice: Overall view of the intact facade with blind arcades
Abbey of Saint Jean des Vignes, Soissons: Overall view, west facade still standing independently
Aix Cathedral: Detail, main Gothic portal