Chapelle royale Saint-Louis de Dreux

Dreux

Beneath the neo-Gothic vaults lie, in sixty-four tombs and even in heart urns, three centuries of Orléanist memory.

The chapel was founded in 1816 by Marie-Adélaïde de Bourbon, daughter of the duke of Penthièvre and mother of the future King Louis-Philippe I, twenty-three years after the revolutionary ransacking of the collegiate church of Saint-Étienne, which until then had housed the family necropolis. Louis-Philippe had it enlarged in the neo-Gothic style from 1839, making it the "Saint-Denis of the Orléans". The double tomb of Louis-Philippe I and Queen Marie-Amélie, sculpted by Antonin Mercié in 1886, holds a central place among the sixty-four tombs preserved.

Getting there : Listed as a monument historique since 1977; property of the Fondation Saint-Louis since 1974, a gift of the Count of Paris, Henri d'Orléans; guided tours

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound