Sainte-Chapelle

The first

Built from 1238 to 1248 to hold a crown of thorns

King Louis IX commissioned the chapel to house his relics of the Passion, including the Crown of Thorns. It was built between 1238 and 1248. The king paid 135,000 livres for the relics, while the whole chapel cost 40,000 livres to build and glaze.

The glass

The upper walls are almost all stained glass

The upper chapel has almost no masonry walls: pillars and buttresses stand between windows of stained glass, 670 square meters of it, not counting the rose window. Most of the windows were put in place between 1242 and 1248, and nearly two-thirds of the original glass survived the Revolution.

670square meters of glass in the upper chapel, not counting the rose window

The illusion

Hidden iron chains and a trick of height

Each vertical support of the windows is built of seven slender columns, which disguise its full thickness. Two belts of iron chain, hidden behind the bars that hold the glass, brace the walls. The nave windows are slightly higher than the apse windows, which makes the chapel look longer than it is.

The spire

The fifth spire carries a painter's face twice

The present spire is thirty-three meters high and the fifth built at Sainte-Chapelle since the 13th century. The painter Steinheil designed the sculpture at its base, and his face appears as two of the apostles, Saint Thomas and Saint Bartholomew.

The Revolution

A grain store, then a file room, then a restoration

During the French Revolution the chapel was turned into a storehouse for grain and the royal emblems on the exterior were smashed. From 1803 to 1837 the upper chapel held the archives of the Palace of Justice. A restoration that began in 1840 took twenty-eight years.