Sainte-Chapelle
Sainte-Chapelle is modeled after Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel at Aachen Germany and that church is modeled after The Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem. This crystal marvel of light is breath-taking! There are 1113 scenes (panels) depicted in the 15 floor to ceiling panels of stained glass. Nearly two-thirds of these panels are original, dating from 1248.
Louis IX built Sainte-Chapelle to house the most sacred of all Christian relics, the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the True Cross. Only the chapel and tower of the original palace of Louis IX remain.
Today Sainte-Chapelle is swallowed up by the Palais de Justice which surrounds it -whereas it was the center-piece of the Palais de St. Louis when it was built.
Built in 6 short years, 1242 – 1248, this chapel is Gothic Rayonnant (Radiant) style and has two levels of chapels. The lower level was the chapel for servants and lesser nobility. The bookstore is located here now. The lower chapel is only 21 feet high.
Sainte-Chapelle – Lower Chapel
Virgin and Child
The lower chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, displays carvings around the entry doors of marial iconography. The stained glass windows in this chapel were taken down after the Paris flood in 1690 and replaced by colorless glass. Those window were again replaced in the 19th century.
Sainte-Chapelle King’s Chapel
Climb the narrow spiral staircase to the upper level which is the King’s Chapel. Splendid light–filled stained glass absolutely astounded us..
The exterior of the entire chapel is 56 feet wide by 118 feet long and is 139 feet high (excluding the steeple) whereas the interior of the upper chapel is 108 feet long and 34 feet wide. At its highest point the Chapel is 67 feet high. At one time there were statues of the twelve apostles between the window panels. However, today only one original remains with the other 11 being copies. The Musée de Moyen Age displays the 11 originals, decapitated during the Revolution.
Sainte-Chapelle Paris
Sainte-Chapelle and Her Stained Glass
As you enter the church, the stained glass windows of the upper chapel tell the story of the Bible in a counter-clockwise beginning with the window on your immediate left. Read the window from bottom to top. The story ends with the tale of the legend of the relics in the last panel on your immediate right. It is the only panel of stained glass that is not related to the Bible. With a ceiling 50 feet high in places (a mere 44 feet in the apse), the story told by the panels at the very top. remains a mytery to the view below unless you carry binoculars when you travel! I wish we had brought binoculars and had this map!
Ste Chapelle’s Beautiful Stained Glass
Sainte-Chapelle Upper Chapel
Sainte-Chapelle Upper Chapel
Shrine which at one time contained the holy relics
The shrine in the apse which contained the holy relics and the Crown of Thorns displayed in this gallery suffered the indignity of a melted down during the Revolution. This shrine/reliquary was 9 feet long and gilded in silver and copper.
Directions
4 Bd du Palais
Metro Line 4, Cité stop
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