Basilique Saint-Denys d'Argenteuil et la Sainte Tunique

Argenteuil

Argenteuil houses one of the most disputed relics in France: the Holy Tunic, which Christian tradition identifies as the seamless garment worn by Christ up to the foot of the Cross. According to the founding account, the Byzantine empress Irene offered it to Charlemagne around the year 800, and he entrusted it to the convent of Argenteuil, where his daughter Theodrada was prioress; yet no writer of Charlemagne's circle, neither Alcuin nor Einhard, says a word about it. The first solid mention is that of 1156, at an exposition organised by Archbishop Hugues d'Amiens in the presence of King Louis VII, even if the charter that records it contains inconsistencies. The cloth was cut into pieces during the Revolution and then partly reassembled, and today it rests in the neo-Gothic basilica built from 1865 by Théodore Ballu and raised to the rank of minor basilica in 1898. The solemn expositions, roughly every fifty years since the 19th century, draw considerable crowds: that of 2016 gathered between 150,000 and 200,000 pilgrims, and a new exposition took place in spring 2025. Advocates of its authenticity point to analyses of eastern pollens, human blood of group AB and convergences with the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo. Carbon-14 dating carried out in 2004, however, places the cloth in the 6th–7th centuries, and examination of the weave, of medieval eastern type, points the same way; the relic's defenders object that the cloth was contaminated over the centuries. The Church itself is cautious today and readily presents the Tunic as an icon of the faith rather than as a certified relic.

Wikipédia — Tunique d'Argenteuil ↗

Getting there : Place Jean Eurieult, in the very centre of Argenteuil, 10 minutes on foot from Argenteuil station (line J, 12 min from Paris Saint-Lazare). The Tunic is kept in a reliquary in the chapel of the right transept and is shown to the public only during the expositions, which are held at long intervals.

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

Ambient sound