Sainte-Chapelle

Behind that gilded gate hides one of the jewels of European Gothic, tucked inside the Palais de Justice. From the street you mostly see its spire; inside, visitors are left speechless by walls that barely exist, replaced by coloured glass.

1A chapel for a relic

In 1239, King Louis IX, the future Saint Louis, acquired from Baldwin II, the Latin emperor of Constantinople, the relic venerated as Christ's Crown of Thorns. The price was enormous, and the king wanted a worthy setting: a palace chapel attached to his residence, the Palais de la Cité. The Sainte-Chapelle was consecrated on 26 April 1248 after only a few years of building, an astonishing pace for the time.

2Two chapels, one above the other

The building has two levels. The lower chapel served the palace staff; the upper chapel, reserved for the king and his circle, held the relics. Its stained glass tells the biblical story in more than a thousand scenes, and much of the glass still dates from the thirteenth century.

During the Revolution the relics left the chapel. The Crown of Thorns is now kept in the treasury of Notre-Dame.

The chapel survived partly because it was used to store court archives. It was thoroughly restored in the nineteenth century, and its present spire dates from 1853.

3What to look out for

• The spire, delicate as lace, rising above the Palais de Justice.
• The Cour de Mai gate, with its eighteenth-century gilding.
• The building's proportions: very tall and narrow, almost all window.