★★★★★ 5.0
Discover
Sainte-Chapelle
Workers are still uncovering medieval fragments beneath your feet here at 10 Boulevard du Palais, remnants of the sprawling royal palace that once dominated this entire corner of Île de la Cité. You're standing before Sainte-Chapelle, and here's something that'll blow your mind... King Louis IX paid 135,000 livres for the Crown of Thorns relic housed inside, but the entire chapel that you see before you? Only 40,000 livres. He literally spent three times more on one relic than the entire building! Step through that Gothic doorway and you'll discover the chapel's sneaky two-story secret. The ground floor was basically the servants' entrance, while upstairs... that's where the magic happens. Those towering stained glass windows you're about to see aren't just pretty pictures, they're a 1,113-scene biblical comic strip that took three mysterious workshops to create. We still don't know their names! And get this, one window breaks all the rules and reads zigzag style, right to left then left to right, telling the story of how those precious relics made their way to Paris. Built in just seven years in the 1240s, this jewel box was designed to make Paris the "New Jerusalem" of medieval Europe.
Did You Know?
- Commissioned by King Louis IX (later Saint Louis) in the 13th century, Sainte-Chapelle was built in just 7 years—record speed for such an elaborate Gothic structure—to house the most prestigious relics of Christ’s Passion, including the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the True Cross, which Louis purchased for the astronomical sum of 135,000 livres tournois, about half his kingdom’s annual income.
- The upper chapel features 15 soaring stained glass bays, each 15 meters high, containing 1,113 panels that together tell the history of the world from Genesis to the arrival of the relics in Paris—this is one of the most extensive and intact collections of 13th-century stained glass in the world, creating a breathtaking ‘wall of light’ effect that still dazzles visitors today.
- Hidden in plain sight, the chapel is nestled behind Paris’s modern law courts, which were built on the site of the former royal palace—visitors can still see traces of the palace in the nearby Conciergerie, and the chapel’s upper level was directly connected to the king’s private apartments, allowing Louis IX to visit his treasured relics at any time without going outside.