If you walk west along Boulevard Haussmann, where the famous department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps sit, you’ll notice, once you reach number 90 or so, a somber and mysterious building across the street. Despite being a grand historic building with a fascinating story, few people know the story behind it, or why it was built. Even fewer visit it.
This building is called the Chapelle Expiatoire (in English, the “Expiatory Chapel”), and today we’ll find out together what that memory is, and how you can visit this mysterious place surrounded by a beautiful, if somewhat melancholy, garden. For that, we need to go back to the year 1793, so hop into my time machine and let’s get started…
When the king and queen were buried in a mass grave at the Madeleine Cemetery
As you all know, the French Revolution broke out in 1789, and everyone was talking about the rights of man and of the citizen. But within a few years the revolution grew more and more violent, and the Reign of Terror began. During this period, the guillotine at Place de la Concorde (then called Place de la Révolution) started working overtime, and a place was needed to quickly bury its victims.
That need was filled by the Madeleine Cemetery, which opened in 1721. Even before the French Revolution, quite a few French citizens had already been buried there (including the 133 people who burned to death when fireworks sparked a fire during the wedding celebrations of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (1755-1793)).
In 1792 it was decided to bury here the fallen of Louis XVI’s Swiss Guard, who were massacred by an angry mob during the storming of the Tuileries Palace. From that day on, those executed during the French Revolution were buried here as well (the guillotine later moved to Place de la Nation, so the revolution’s victims began to be buried at the Picpus Cemetery instead, but that’s another story).
On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was executed at Place de la Révolution. After his head was severed, his body was placed in a coffin with his head between his legs. The coffin was carried through what are today Rue Saint-Honoré and Rue Boissy d’Anglas, and from there to Rue d’Anjou. There, the king was buried in an unmarked grave near the fence.
At that very moment, a man named Pierre-François Palloy (1755-1835) served a stuffed pig’s head at his restaurant to mark the occasion. As you can see, the French have never lost their refined sense of humor…
The king’s burial site would almost certainly have been forgotten quickly, since placing a gravestone there was forbidden. But luckily for monarchy enthusiasts, a man named Olivier Desclozeaux (1732-1816), who lived on Rue d’Anjou, peeked out of his window and noted down exactly where the king was buried. He did the same thing when Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) was buried here in October 1793, and for good measure he planted a pair of weeping willows next to the graves.
In 1802 the Madeleine Cemetery was closed, and Desclozeaux decided to buy the land to turn it into his private garden. This was without a doubt one of the best real estate investments in history, because when the Bourbons returned to power in 1814, one of the first things they did was search for the grave of the royal couple.
Olivier approached King Louis XVIII (r. 1814-1824) and showed him exactly where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) were buried. After the bodies were identified, they were transferred to the Basilica of Saint-Denis, where they were buried, alongside most of France’s kings, in a grand ceremony. Olivier received a generous pension, the Order of Saint Michael, and a royal dowry for his two daughters. After an exhausting negotiation, he agreed to sell the garden to the king of France, which made him a very wealthy man (he earned around 160,000 francs in total, a very serious sum in those days).
To honor the memory of Louis XVI and his wife, Louis XVIII decided to build a grand chapel on the site where they had been buried. The man entrusted with the task was the architect Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853), whom we know for the western section of Rue de Rivoli, which he designed on Napoleon’s orders.
Construction took nearly a decade, and the place was inaugurated by Charles X (r. 1824-1830), brother of both Louis XVIII and Louis XVI, in 1826. From the moment the chapel opened to the public, quite a few people called it the “hangover” of the old monarchy (l’Ancien Régime). As a result, over the following years, quite a few people wanted to tear the building down.
Things came to a head in 1871, during the days of the Paris Commune, when an official demolition order was issued for the chapel. But then a man named Jacques Liebmann appeared, posing as an American businessman interested in buying the building’s stones. He paid a generous deposit, dragged out the process with bureaucratic excuses until the Commune fell, and that’s how the building was saved (a comedy of errors at its finest). In 1914 the building was declared a historic monument, and the threat of demolition disappeared for good.
Visiting the Chapelle Expiatoire
Now that I’ve told you the story behind this mysterious chapel, it’s time to visit it. Let’s start with a few practical details, and right after that I’ll tell you what you’ll see there (including a few photos I took on one of my recent trips to Paris).
How do you get there?
The fastest way to get there is by metro. You can get off at Saint-Augustin (line 9), or at Saint-Lazare (lines 3, 12, 13, 14) or Havre-Caumartin (lines 3, 9). From there it’s a short walk along Boulevard Haussmann, and you’ll see the garden and chapel on your right.
Opening hours and days
Opening hours vary by season (note that last admission is half an hour before closing):
- April 1 to September 30: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00-12:30 and 13:30-18:30 (closed Sundays and Mondays).
- October 1 to March 31: Wednesday to Saturday, 10:00-12:30 and 13:30-17:00 (closed Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays).
The site is closed on January 1, May 1 and December 25.
Buying tickets
Admission costs around 6 euros (that’s what it cost when I visited). Visitors under 18 (and EU residents under 25) get in free. Tickets can be bought at the ticket office, but if you have a Paris Pass, you can use it to get in for free.
A “guided tour” of the chapel
Step into the charming garden built around the chapel. In my opinion, this isn’t just a great place to rest from your sightseeing in Paris. It’s a good moment to recall the phrase “let them eat cake”, and if you picked up some cake earlier at one of the pâtisseries around the Madeleine church, this is the spot for a short memorial feast in honor of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), to whom the phrase is attributed (never mind that she probably never actually said it).
Once you’ve finished, go ahead and head inside.
The entrance to the complex
The entrance to the site is somber, as befits a memorial. Above the entrance door you’ll see a sarcophagus and an inscription noting Louis XVIII’s efforts to preserve the memory of his brother and sister-in-law.
Once inside, you’ll see the ticket office and museum shop on your right (in case you still need a ticket). If you already have tickets, go ahead and continue into the courtyard, but before you do, take a look at the silhouettes of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) above the arches in the wall.
The inner garden
This is actually where the Madeleine Cemetery used to be (a raised garden known as the Campo Santo), and you’ll find two rows of gravestones on either side. These gravestones were built in memory of the fallen of the Swiss Guard, who were massacred on August 10, 1792, when the royal family was seized from the Tuileries Palace and imprisoned in the Temple fortress in the Marais. Take a moment to notice the white rose bushes planted along the main path as well: this isn’t random landscaping, but a special variety originally cultivated for Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) at the Palace of Versailles. Spend a few minutes reflecting on the memory of these brave soldiers, and continue forward into the chapel itself.
The chapel
When you step into the chapel, you’ll almost certainly be reminded of the Pantheon in Rome, thanks to the dome through which sunlight pours in.
Under the dome, you’ll find statues of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (1755-1793):
The statue of Louis XVI was created by the famous sculptor François Joseph Bosio (1768-1845), who was also responsible, among other things, for the horse sculptures on the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. As you can see, the king is supported by an angel on his way to heaven (look closely at the angel’s face: it’s actually the face of the confessor priest who accompanied Louis to the guillotine, Father Edgeworth). Below the statue you’ll find the king’s last testament engraved in black marble.
On the other side you’ll find the statue of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), the work of the famous sculptor Jean-Pierre Cortot (1787-1843), who was also responsible for some of the sculptures on the Arc de Triomphe (this time the one at Place de l’Étoile). As you can see, the queen is kneeling before a statue representing the Christian faith (if the face on this figure looks familiar, that’s because it’s based on the likeness of the queen’s beloved sister-in-law, Madame Élisabeth, who was also executed). Below this statue you can read (if you know French, of course) the last letter Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) wrote to Louis XVI’s sister.
Another relief well worth noting was made by the sculptor Antoine-François Gérard (1760-1843), and it depicts the transfer of the royal couple’s bodies from their temporary grave at the Madeleine Cemetery to the Basilica of Saint-Denis.
Leaving the chapel and the secrets of the crypt
Once you’ve finished taking in the splendor of the chapel, you’re welcome to go down to the crypt to see the exact spot where Louis XVI was buried (it’s marked with a black marble altar). But the crypt’s biggest secret was only uncovered in 2018. Thanks to tiny cameras inserted into the walls, researchers confirmed what had until then been only a vague rumor: the place is actually an entire necropolis. Behind these walls rest ossuaries containing the bones of roughly 500 victims of the guillotine from the Revolution, among them famous women such as Louis XV’s mistress, Madame du Barry, and the feminist Olympe de Gouges.
After that, you’re welcome to exit through the side gallery, where you’ll find a few more gravestones and, sometimes, a rotating exhibition.
Take your time and enjoy the quiet and calm as you make your way to the gift shop. That’s where our short tour ends. I really hope you enjoyed it.
Want to visit more fascinating cemeteries in Paris?
Paris’s cemeteries hold quite a few beautiful graves and fascinating historical stories. So it’s no surprise they’ve become one of the city’s major attractions. If you’d like more information on the various cemeteries in Paris, you can find it in the article Paris Cemeteries: If Only the Tombstones Could Talk.
Planning a trip to Paris?
If you’re planning a trip to Paris and want to discover more charming spots like this chapel, I highly recommend checking out the article Paris travel guide. There you’ll find not only walking itineraries and information on monuments, but also practical information like how to find cheap flights, recommended hotels, and more.
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