Sainte-Chapelle

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After Saint Louis (then King of France) paid off the debts of another man who had pledged fragments of the original Crown of Thorns as security for a loan on which he defaulted, Saint Louis took possession of the fragments and built a chapel within his palace on the Île de la Cité to hold them and and other relics. This Holy Chapel or Sainte-Chapelle /sɛ̃t ʃapɛl/, built eighty years after Notre-Dame Cathedral, in the thirteenth century, represented a considerable advance over this latter structure, especially with respect to the use of stained glass. Many tourists coming to Paris consider their visit to this chapel, now located in the middle of the Conciergerie, to be one of the most impressive highlights of their trip.

The building is small inside, not much larger than a tennis court. There are two levels. The lower level, which I show in another photo, was used by servants of the court. The upper level, seen here, was used by the king, and is almost completely lined in stained glass, most of which has survived to this day (making it the oldest stained glass in Paris). The vertical panels you see here are five stories high and depict scenes from a large part of the Bible. You are looking east.

Because the chapel is so small, it‘s hard to get all of it into a photograph. That‘s why you see exaggerated perpsective in this photo. The scaffolding in the background is repair work for some minor damage done by the windstorm of December, 1999. The pinkish tone of the photo is accurate; that is how it looks in real life.

If you‘d like to see the lower chapel, click here.

Photographed on September 28, 2000.