The Sainte-Chapelle
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The Sainte-Chapelle, was built by Saint Louis near the royal apartments, nowadays it become the courtyard of the Palace of Justice. Louis IX's exemplar piety induced him to purchase reliques, at that time feverishly searched for by Christianity. An exceptional opportunity was offered to him: towards 1230 Baldwin II, the Byzantine emperor, was forced to sell the crown of thorns and other reliques of Christ's Passion. Saint Louis purchased them at a very high price, and soon decided to erect an enormous reliquary to protect them adequately in his palace. The realization of the chapel, entrusted to the architect Pierre de Montreuil, required only three years; the consecration took place on April 25th 1248.
The supporting structure of the building is a miracle of lightness: it consists only of a light framework of pillars supported by fragile buttresses. In the place of regular walls rise 15-metre-high glass windows. This daring innovation, unprecedented at the time, carries to extremes the logic of Gothic architecture. According to the by then frequent solution in palatine chapels, this one consists of two floors, the lower part for the staff, the upper chapel reserved to the Grandees of the Reign and linked by means of a corridor to the king's apartments.
A fire seriously damaged the building in the 17th century; the revolution planned its demolition, but finally, under Louis-Philippe, Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc undertook a gigantic restoration.
Interior.
After passing under the superim-posed arcades, you enter the lower chapel, whose scarce height has induced the director of the work to add two side aisles to the nave. This chapel, ingeniously designed, constitutes a strong basis to the upper part.
This can be reached by means of an interior staircase. Anyone who enters here cannot help feeling an intense aesthetic emotion. The walls are in glass and the glass is wonderful stained glass. This chapel is a "house of light", fully answering the Gothic demands about "mysticism of light" enunciated by Abbe Suger in the 12th century: the light is God, and the faithful, touched by this mediator, participates of the divine essence. The 15 stained-glass windows are really dazzling. Eleven of them represent the Old Testament, one of the nave and four of the apse tell the New Testament and the history of the reliques. Half of the scenes would be original (13th century), but the other half perfectly blends with it thanks to the skilful restoration of the 19th century. The large rose window, more recent (end of the 15th century), represents the Apocalypse on 86 panels. The statues of the apostles, six of which date back to the 14th century, lean on the pillars, to symbolize perhaps the support of the Church. The elegant whole erected behind the altar has been completely remade by Lassus. The central niche served as a tribune for the reliquary.
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