By: Katie Petersen<\/p>\n
Amid the famous Gothic architecture and stained glass Christian scenes of the Basilica of Saint Denis, something is missing. Some\u00a0things<\/em>, actually. High on one window, a wooden board panel replaces a piece of the colorful story. On the opposite wall, an entire rose window is substituted by translucent white glass. Outside and high above the heads of ogling tourists, the left tower is nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n Some window panels are being repaired because the glass itself is damaged (most are from the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century, with some dating back to the 12th<\/sup>, according to PhD student and Saint Denis tour guide Elliot Boulate). Some, like the rose window panels, have been temporarily replaced because their supporting structures have become unstable.<\/p>\n When asked if the tower and stained glass panels will be restored and reinstated soon, Boulate is not optimistic. He is clearly passionate about the history of the church, but says, \u201cEven if we have a very dense historical monument and very old, we are not one of the top tourist place in Paris, so we don\u2019t have a lot of money for that.\u201d<\/p>\n He gestures to a statue of Charles V in the corner as an example: \u201cWe thought for years that the lions at his feet had been destroyed. In fact, they have been discovered again; it was in a private collection in the UK and it will be sold at Christie\u2019s [one of the world\u2019s leading auction houses] next summer.\u201d At first, this sounds like great news. \u201cBut we don\u2019t have any money to buy them,\u201d Boulate laments, \u201cso it probably will be the British museum that will be the acquirer for those lions.\u201d<\/p>\n A lack of funding stems from a lack of traffic, Boulate explains, so \u201cwe are trying to attract more and more people.\u201d<\/p>\n To that end, while some of the classic pieces like stained glass windows and Gothic towers are missing, the church has been creatively bringing in other attractions.<\/p>\n A recently introduced art exhibition, entitled \u201cMater: Reines de France,\u201d or\u00a0Mother: Queens of France<\/em>, features local Saint Denis women draped in silky, white fabric as modern reinterpretations of the classice \u2018mourning mother.\u2019 <\/p>\n For the sake of preserving history, the curators of the Basilica of Saint Denis are looking to bring new life to a final resting place for French royalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Katie Petersen Amid the famous Gothic architecture and stained glass Christian scenes of the Basilica of Saint Denis, something is missing. Some\u00a0things, actually. High on one window, a wooden board panel replaces a piece of the colorful story. On the opposite wall, an entire rose window is substituted by translucent white glass. Outside and … <\/p>\n
\nAdditionally, Boulate shares, the church organizes a classical music concert in June dubbed the \u201cFestival of Saint Denis\u201d and hosts guided school tours to raise revenue.<\/p>\n