The Saint Chapelle
The Saint Chapelle was erected by Louis IX in 1241 and it was designed to house religious treasures. It is also known to be one of the most important of the medieval architecture.
If you want to visit it, you should know where it is located: on the Ile de la Cité which is in the center of Paris city.
The king Loius IX tried to find a proper place where he could house the Crown of Thorns and also a fragment of the True Cross. These are relics from the Passion that he had bought 2 years prior from the Baldwin II Emperor. He also paid a price for them, around 135,000 livres, a 4 times amount bigger than the building of the chapel would cost.
Its construction had started in 1242, and it was completed only 6 years later. The Sain Chapelle’s style was after the Gothic architecture. The chapel has also 36 meters length, 17 meters width and 43 meters height.
It was a bad moment after the French Revolution when a big part of the Saint Chapelle was destroyed. It includes even furnitures and stalls. But the most important were the relics, which have been taken from there, as well as nobody could find them again. Only one piece of them was found and it was housed at the Notre-Dame cathedral.
Nowadays, the chapel is dedicated to the Virgin Mary . Even the arched columns were decorated with several medallions for the reason to represent the Apostles.
Tags: Saint Chapelle