Chapelle ardente

Chapelle Ardente of Admiral Amédée Courbet (°1827 + 1885) aboard ship Bayard

A chapelle ardente (Fr. "burning chapel") is a chapel or room in which the corpse of a sovereign or other exalted personage lies in state pending the funeral service. The name is in allusion to the many candles which are lighted round the catafalque. This custom is first chronicled as occurring at the obsequies of Dagobert I (602-638).

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 29, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.