Abbey of Saint Genevieve

The Abbey of Saint Genevieve was founded in the early sixth century by King Clovis the First and his queen, Clotilde, on the hilltop then known as Mount Leucotilius. They commissioned a basilica there to serve as a royal burial site, but the location gained its enduring fame as the final resting place of Saint Genevieve. She was a woman of local legend who had lived as an ascetic on this very hill, and her presence transformed the site into a destination for pilgrims who believed her intercession could save Paris from disaster. For over a thousand years, her relics were paraded through the city streets whenever famine, plague, or foreign armies threatened the population.