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Discover the expiatory chapel in the centre of the square Louis XVI in Paris, a late Neoclassical gem.
Understanding the expiatory chapel
• A funereal monument. Louis XVIII ordered a memorial to be built in 1816. The expiatory chapel was completed in 1826 on the spot where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were buried in 1793, after being guillotined on the place de la Révolution, now place de la Concorde.
Visiting the expiatory chapel
• A masterpiece of Neoclassical architecture. The architect, Fontaine, designed the chapel as a Greco-Roman necropolis in the shape of a Greek cross. A dome above the centre of the building is supported by pendentives and decorated with caissons decorated with rosettes. The rigour of the spaces, the almost ‘archaic' sobriety of the layout and the light from the dome are inducive to quiet remembrance.
• Remarkable sculptures. Two groups of statues in white marble by Bosio and Cortot show the famous couple in ecstasy. They are among the finest sculptures of the 19th-century French School. The crypt beneath houses an altar in white and black marble, which is said to be on the exact spot where the bodies of the monarchs were found.
