We visited Sainte Chapelle in a cold mist on January 12, 2000. It's hard to back up and get a great view, because the chapel, formerly part of the palace, now within the precincts of the Police Department, is surrounded by buildings. A small courtyard lets you walk part way around it. The striking view is up, anyway. I don't think we thought about moving back. This intensely Gothic chapel is not large. It was finished in five years, as compared with most cathedrals which took 100 or more years. One reason for its rapid completion is probably that it was the royal chapel, so funding came from the king rather than from donations. King Louis IX (Saint Louis) had it built between 1243 and 1248 to house the Crown of Thorns, which he had bought in Venice in 1238. Sainte Chapelle was started and finished during the time Notre Dame was being built only a few blocks away. Both are on the Ile de la Cite -- the big island in the center of Paris where the city was born.

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You enter Sainte Chapelle through the bottom level. This was originally where palace servants worshipped, while the upper level was reserved for the royal family. The two photos on the left were taken in the downstairs chapel, which is gorgeous. Some of the decoration, such as the stars, were added much later during a restoration. The rose window on the right is at one end of the chapel upstairs.

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Cramped spiral stairs take you from the ground-level servants' chapel into the upper storey of the church. Almost modest in size, nearly stark, stone-floored, and without furniture except for a single bench running along each of the the two longest walls of the horse shoe, the effect is stunning. The windows rise from just past head height, reaching for the vaulted ceiling. Vertical panes surround you on three sides, and a rose window (see right photo above) is implanted over the ancient doors at the end. By the time Sainte Chapelle was built, French architects had learned how to narrow the piers without collapsing the building, leaving the walls almost nothing but glass. Chandeliers drop from the vaults, the candles feeling warm on this cold day. In the third photo above, you can see scaffolding wrapped in plastic that keeps the weather out and allows workers access to where a piece of masonry smashed through the glass during the storms of Christmas 1999. Arriving January 12, we saw some effects of the storm, but not many.

For more things to see and do in Paris, check out HotelTravel.com's Paris Sightseeing page. If you're thinking about a visit, also see their hotel listings by area of the city at Paris Hotels.

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All photos are © Copyright Sheryl Todd and Marco Herranz.


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