Sainte Chapelle, Gothic chapel in Île de la Cité, France
Sainte-Chapelle is a chapel on Île de la Cité in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. It has two floors, with the upper level featuring tall stained glass windows that cover nearly the entire wall.
Louis IX bought the Crown of Thorns from Baldwin II, Latin emperor of Constantinople, for 135,000 livres; the relic reached Paris in August 1239. He then built the chapel, consecrated on 26 April 1248, to house it and some thirty other Passion relics. Closed around 1790, emptied and used as an archive depot, it was restored from 1837 over twenty-six years.
The stained glass windows tell stories from the Bible and glow in reds, blues, and golds when sunlight passes through. Visitors can view scenes from the Old and New Testament on the tall walls of the upper level.
Access to the upper chapel is by a narrow spiral staircase, which can be difficult for visitors with limited mobility. The best time to visit is on sunny days when light streams through the glass windows.
The upper chapel was conceived as a reliquary: it has no exterior doorway, and Louis IX reached it directly from his palace. The "Relics of the Passion" window on the south side shows the king carrying the Crown of Thorns into Paris barefoot and dressed as a penitent in August 1239.
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