The 11th arrondissement isn’t known as a particularly touristy area, since it’s a working-class neighborhood of Paris, and as such it has no grand palaces, huge squares or any famous tourist brand name. And in the middle of this relatively unknown neighborhood stands a church that even many Parisians don’t know about. The church’s name is Sainte-Marguerite, and within its beautiful walls it hid a secret that occupied France for more than 200 years.

When a paralyzed woman starts walking, but someone else takes the credit

The Sainte-Marguerite church started out in the 17th century as a kind of “little sister” to the magnificent Saint-Paul church, located in the Marais. Despite its somewhat sleepy beginnings, in 1725 an event took place there that made it famous overnight. On May 31 of that year, Madame Anne Charlier de la Fosse, who had been disabled for about 20 years, was instantly cured upon arriving at the church.

The Archbishop of Paris immediately declared it a miracle and ordered an annual procession to pass through the church. Following the event, Madame de la Fosse became a local celebrity, and when she died about 35 years later, a huge crowd attended her funeral. The leaders of Saint-Paul, Sainte-Marguerite’s “older sister,” were jealous of the little sister’s success and applied no small amount of political pressure, which led to the fact that although Anne had become famous thanks to the miracle that took place at Sainte-Marguerite, she was buried at their church instead.

For years, the leaders of Sainte-Marguerite fought to have Madame de la Fosse’s body transferred to them, but without success, and all that remains of the event is a small plaque marking the miracle that happened there. Still, another funeral, which took place about 35 years after that event, was destined to make the church famous again, even more so.

The mystery of Louis XVII’s death and burial place

On June 10, 1795, at 5 p.m., a funeral procession arrived at the church made up of eight soldiers, a sergeant, and four other mysterious men carrying a coffin. The body was buried in an unmarked grave with no ceremony at all. According to the official account, the person buried there was Louis XVII (1785-1795), the son of Louis XVI (r. 1774-1792) and Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), who had died of tuberculosis, neglect and abuse by his captors the day before.

But questions about the circumstances of his death quickly began to surface, and rumors spread that the body buried there belonged to someone else. The wish of both the revolutionaries and Louis XVIII (r. 1814-1824), Louis XVI’s brother, to bury the affair as quickly as possible only fueled rumors that Louis XVII was still alive. As a result, during the 19th century, nearly 100 people appeared on the stage of history, each claiming to be the true heir of Louis XVI.

The pretenders to the throne

The most famous pretender to the throne was Karl Wilhelm Naundorff (1785-1845), who arrived in Paris in 1833 and claimed that Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), the mistress of Paul Barras (1755-1829) and Napoleon’s future wife, had demanded that he be hidden away so he could serve as a bargaining chip should the royal family ever return to power in France. From there, he claimed, he was taken to Prussia, where he grew up knowing he was the rightful king of France.

Although Naundorff spoke poor French, he managed to convince quite a few members of Louis XVI’s former court that he really was the king’s son, thanks to the intimate knowledge he had of the royal family. In 1836, he sued his “sister” Marie-Thérèse de France (1778-1851) in a French court, demanding that property he claimed belonged to him be returned.

In response, King Louis-Philippe (r. 1830-1848) expelled him, and he was forced to move to England. There, Naundorff became involved in inventing the hand grenade. Eventually, though, he had to move to the Netherlands, where he died in 1845 in the city of Delft, apparently as a result of poisoning, which only adds to the mystery surrounding him. His tombstone reads “Louis XVII, King of France and Navarre,” and for many years afterward, quite a few people believed he was the rightful heir to the French throne.

The mystery of Louis XVII’s death lasted until the year 2000, and it was finally solved thanks to his heart. It had been kept by the doctor who performed the autopsy on his body, as a memento. The doctor’s assistant stole the heart, and decades later, on his deathbed, he confessed to the theft and gave the heart to the Archbishop of Paris.

From there, the heart began a journey across Europe, passing through the hands of Carlos, Duke of Madrid, and arriving in Austria in the early 20th century. From there it made its way to a Portuguese princess who inherited it, and finally, in 1975, it returned to France inside a crystal vessel and was placed in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, where most of the kings of France are buried.

In 2000, the government decided to run a DNA test on the heart, and it was revealed that it belonged, without doubt, to the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The heart was buried in a grand ceremony at Saint-Denis, attended by the mayor of Paris and quite a few royalists.

That is how a mystery more than 200 years old was finally solved. Sainte-Marguerite returned to its anonymity, so you won’t find many tourists there. Still, if you happen to be in the area, don’t miss it. Step in for a few moments and pay your respects to the boy king, without question the most tragic figure of the French Revolution.