Sainte-Chapelle – a gem of high gothic architecture in the centre of the Ile-de-la-Cite’

Built between 1242 and 1248 to house the relics of the Passion of Christ.  The most famous of these relics was the Crown of Thorns, acquired in 1239 for a sum that greatly exceeded the cost of building the Chapel itself.  The Holy Relics had belonged to the emperors of Constantinople since the 4th Century.

Sainte-Chapelle consist of two levels, the lower chapel and the upper chapel.

Visitors are greeted by a statue of the Virgin Mary, the sanctuary’s patron saint.

The low vault is held up by openwork struts linking the aisle column to the lateral walls.  These walls are decorated with blind trefoil armatures and 12 medallions featuring the apostles.  The vaults’ flour-de-lys on an azure background are also found on the columns, alternating the towers on a purple background which were the arms of Queen Blanche of Castile, Louis IX’s mother.

And then you found yourself in the far back corners of the sanctuary where spiral staircases led you to the upper chapel.

This is a truly monumental and sumptuously decorated reliquary.  Sculpts and windows combine harmoniously to glorify the Passion of Christ and created a feeling of entry into the Heavenly Jerusalem.

 

The 1,113 scenes depicted in the 15 stained glass windows tell the story of mankind from Genesis through to Christ’s resurrection.  Fourteen of the windows, depicting episodes from the bible, should be read from left to right, from the bottom upwards.

Many, if not all, of civilization could not read and the stories of the bible were taught by pictures.  You could literally read the bible by looking at these beautiful stained glass windows.

 

 

The Western Rose (the round window) illustrates the prophetic Apocalypse of St. John, symbolically represented opposite the Passion of Christ in the choir’s central stained glass window. In the center of the rose, Christ returns in glory at the end of Time to judge the dead and the living.