Sainte Chapelle, King Saint-Louis’ private chapel
The Sainte Chapelle is celebrated as a jewel of Rayonnant Gothic architecture and remains one of the most visited monuments in Paris.
It is located in the courtyard of the Palais de Justice, the former royal palace of the kings of France on the Île de la Cité, now the Law Courts.
King Louis IX, later canonised as Saint Louis, commissioned his architect, Pierre de Montreuil, to build the chapel to house the Crown of Thorns, one of the most venerated relics of Christianity, which he had acquired from Baldwin II, the last Latin Emperor of Constantinople. At the time, the purchase of the relic cost more than the entire construction of the chapel!
The Saint -Chapelle was built on the site of the former Chapel of Saint-Nicolas-du-Palais and was consecrated on April 25, 1248. It is laid out on two levels, each with its own function and character and connected by two spiral staircases.
The Chapelle Haute (Upper Chapel), on the upper floor, was the king’s personal chapel and that of his close entourage. Directly accessible from the royal private apartments, it contained the sacred relics. Vast stained-glass windows, predominantly shades of red and deep blue, the finest surviving collection of 13th-century stained glass, bathe the chapel in a brilliant light.
The Chapelle Basse (Lower Chapel), below, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was reserved for the palace staff. Although richly decorated with ribbed vaults painted in deep blue and studded with golden stars, it is striking but less spectacular than the Upper Chapel.
Sainte Chapelle, a fine illustration of Gothic architecture
The Sainte Chapelle is one of the finest masterpieces of Gothic art, remarkable for its elegance and religious symbolism.
Its proportions alone inspire awe: the building’s height is almost equal to its length, thus creating a striking impression of verticality, harmony, and lightness!
The chapel has survived the vicissitudes of history.
For example, in 1776, a fire that ravaged part of the Palace of Justice damaged its north side. It then narrowly escaped demolition during the French Revolution, as it was converted into a flour warehouse and then an archive storage facility.
Fortunately, in the mid-19th century, Napoleon III commissioned a team of renowned architects, including Duban, Lassus, Viollet-le-Duc, and Boeswillwald, to restore the Sainte Chapelle to its former glory. Thus, in 1853, Lassus rebuilt the 75-metre-high spire as a faithful replica of the 15th-century one.
The Upper Chapel has glass walls instead of stone walls!
Fifteen immense windows, approximately 15-m-high and 4,5-m-wide, flood the nave with brilliant light. These windows are famous for their remarkable balance of lightness and fluidity, as well as for the robustness and perfection of their structure, a feat of 13th-century engineering.
Their preservation is a true miracle. Despite centuries of wars, revolutions, pollution, and fires, two-thirds of the stained-glass windows are indeed original and date back to the late 1240s.
Their brilliance endures thanks to a unique medieval technique: colouring the glass with metallic oxides that fused with the material during firing. This process ensured that the deep blues and vibrant reds would remain intact, even after 750 years.
These stained-glass boast more than 1,100 narrative panels, illustrating striking scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
The gilded reliquary containing the Crown of Thorns, brought to Paris by Saint Louis, was the chapel’s centrepiece. This gold reliquary, along with all the metal art objects, was melted down during the French Revolution, but it was replaced in the 19th century by the current replica.
Fortunately, the Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross, and a Nail from the Passion were saved and are kept in the reliquary in the axial chapel of Notre-Dame Cathedral.
But the splendour of the Sainte Chapelle is not limited to its stained-glass windows. Both chapels are richly decorated with murals, gilded columns, sculpted capitals, and intricate carvings. The Sainte-Chapelle has been listed as a historic monument since 1867.
Tip for your visit: Purchase a combined ticket for Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie online; it’s cheaper and avoids long queues, especially during peak season.
Directions: 1st District – Boulevard du Palais
Metro: Cité on Line 4
Coordinates: Lat 48.855048 – Long 2.345479
