More than 200 years after the death of Louis XVII, son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, the French Culture Ministry has given permission for his heart to be buried in the royal crypt.
The ministry approved the symbolic burial after geneticists who had compared the DNA of royal family members decided in 2000 that it was Louis who had died in prison in 1795.
The then dauphin, or heir to the throne, was 7 when he was jailed in 1792 with the rest of the royal family in the turbulent period after the French Revolution, and died of tuberculosis in 1795. His parents died on the guillotine in 1793.
Louis' heart, stone-hard and held in an urn, has remained in the chapel near the royal crypt of the Saint Denis Basilica, near Paris.
Louis' heart laid to rest 200 years after death
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