Date

Circa 1910

The House of Orléans was founded by Philippe de France, duc d'Orléans, the younger brother of Louis XIV of France. The house rose to prominence during the French Revolution and once again during the reign of Louis-Philippe of France. The burials were once in the chapel of the Collégiale Saint-Étienne de Dreux, but this was destroyed during the Revolution and the bodies thrown into a mass grave. In 1816, the Duchess of Orléans had a new Neoclassic chapel built on the site of the mass grave of the Chanoines cemetery. In 1830, Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, her son, embellished and enlarged the chapel (in a Neo-Gothic style) which was renamed Chapelle royale de Dreux, now the necropolis of the Orléans royal family. Sculptors include Millet, Barre, Lenoir, Pradier and Merciér.