Home > Sainte-Chapelle

The Sainte-Chapelle needed suitable relics: Christ's crown of thorns was possibly available. Unlike many devout aristocrats, who swiped relics, the saintly Louis bought his precious relics of the Passion, purchased from the Latin emperor at Constantinople, Baldwin II, for the exorbitant sum of 135,000 livres. The entire chapel, by contrast, cost 40,000 livres to build. A piece of the True Cross was added, and other relics. Thus the building was like a precious reliquary. At the same time, it reveals Louis' political and cultural ambition, with the imperial throne at Constantinople occupied by a mere Count of Flanders and with the Holy Roman Empire in uneasy disarray, to be the central monarch of western Christendom. Just as the Emperor could pass privately from his palace into Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, so now Louis could pass directly from his palace into the Sainte-Chapelle. The Saint Chapelle rises above the rooflines of the royal palace on the Ile de la Cité in a miniature by the Limbourg brothers, ca 1400 The Royal chapel stands squarely upon a lower chapel which served as parish church for all the inhabitants of the palace, which was the seat of government (see " palace"). The king was later granted sainthood by the Roman Catholic ChurchThe Roman Catholic Church (often called simply the Catholic Church, but see Catholicism for other meanings of the term "Catholic Church") is a worldwide body of Christians in full communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and subscribing to the beliefs as Saint Louis.

The most visually beautiful aspects of the chapel, and considered the best of their type in the world, are its stained glassStrictly speaking, stained glass is glass that has been painted with silver stain and then fired. Depending on its thickness, this stains clear glass with a gold/yellow/brown color. This appears most typically in the golden haloes depicted in church windo for which the stonework is a delicate framework, and rose windows added to the upper chapel in the 15th century14th century 15th century 16th century other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. Events Renaissance affects philosophy, science and art. The New Monarchs come to power i.

No designer-builder is directly mentioned in archives concerned with the construction, but the name of Pierre de Montreuil, who had rebuilt the apse of the Royal Abbey of Saint-DenisThe Basilica of Saint Denis (in French, la Basilique de Saint-Denis , a famous burial site for French monarchs, is located in Saint Denis (near Paris). Saint Denis is a patron saint of France and, according to legend, was the first bishop of Paris. A simp and completed the façade of Notre-Dame Cathedral in ParisNotre Dame and Notre-Dame redirect here. It is French for "Our Lady" and is thus the name of a vast number of Catholic churches in French-speaking countries, including several inside Paris. In the United States, Notre Dame is most typically used to refer is sometimes connected with the Sainte-Chapelle.

During the French RevolutionThe period of the French Revolution in the history of France covers the years between 1789 and 1799, in which democrats and republicans overthrew the absolute monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church perforce underwent radical restructuring. While France wo, the chapel was converted to an administrative office, and the windows were obscured by enormous filing cabinets. Their all-but-forgotten beauty was thereby inadvertently protected from the vandalism in which the choir stalls and the rood screen were destroyed, the spire pulled down and the relics dispersed. In the 19th century Viollet-le-Duc restored the Sainte-Chapelle: the current spire is his sensitive deign.

The Sainte-Chapelle has been a national historic monument since 1862.