Sainte-Chapelle

Image: Wikimedia Commons

In the heart of the Île de la Cité, King Louis IX raised a reliquary of stone and glass for the Crown of Thorns, acquired in 1239 at staggering cost, together with a fragment of the True Cross. Built in barely seven years and consecrated in 1248, the Sainte-Chapelle is the jewel of Rayonnant Gothic: fifteen windows fifteen metres high, more than a thousand panels of medieval glass telling the story of salvation from Genesis to the arrival of the relics in Paris, walls that seem made entirely of light. The king who built it was canonized as Saint Louis, the only French king raised to the altars, and on his feast of August 25 his chapel still glows like the New Jerusalem he wanted his capital to be.