The Chapelle Expiatoire is a chapel in Paris which was erected in the 19th century by Louis XVIII, in memory of the executed Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette; this chapel, which is today the site of various historical exhibitions, is primarily associated with the fates of these two royal personages. However, a bombshell revelation may change what we know about this royal chapel: Aymeric Peniguet de Stoutz, the director of the chapelle expiatoire, announced in a June 2020 press release that he believes hundreds of human remains from people guillotined during the French Revolution are buried in previously unknown crypts inside the chapel.
According to de Stoutz, he decided to request archeological analysis after noticing something unusual about the walls in certain areas of the lower chapel which, on the plans of the building, contained support beams without explanation. He was granted permission to bring in an archeologist, who carefully inserted a microscopic camera between the stones of the chapel walls. The findings? Images of bones, including, de Stoutz noted, “human [feet and hands.]” The archeologist confirmed that he believes there are four ossuaries in the form of large wooden boxes filled with human bones mixed with dirt, indicating that the bones were likely once buried underground.
How did the remains get there? The Chapelle Expiatoire was built on the site of the former Madeleine cemetery, one of at least four designated cemeteries in Paris where victims of the guillotine were buried in mass graves; it was closed in 1794. Despite Louis XVIII orders that “no earth saturated with victims [of the revolution] be moved for the construction of [the chapel],” it was traditionally believed the bodies buried in the Madeleine cemetery were actually dug up, then later buried in the Paris catacombs with the remains of others guillotined during the Revolution. With the recent findings, however, it seems almost certain that the bodies of those buried originally at the Madeleine cemetery were instead reburied inside the chapel.
De Stoutz’s findings are supported with archival research he conducted, which revealed that in 1818, the architect of the expiatory wrote a letter indicating that “The bones found there [in the cemetery] were collected with respect into four vaults.” A line from the Le Moniteur published on January 21st, 1826, in congruence with the completion of the chapel also confirmed that "the bones of the victims contained in the old Madeleine cemetery were deposited [in a vault].” (Read more.)
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