The Butte Montmartre, Mount of Mars under the Romans, is the place where the first bishop of Paris, Denis, was beheaded. Legend has it that the future saint picked up his head and walked 3.73 miles (6 km) north to the place where a pious woman buried him and his two companions. Over the centuries, a shrine, a church, and then a basilica was built over his grave. On his way, Denis is said to have stopped to wash his head in a spring located on the western slope of the Butte (today’s Suzanne Buisson Square). Dried up in the 19th century, the spring was reputed to be miraculous, capable of curing fevers, and making women faithful.