Sainte-Chapelle

Sainte-Chapelle is in Paris, Île-de-France, France and is a royal Gothic chapel built by Louis IX to house major Passion relics, now one of France’s most important sacred heritage monuments.. Louis IX commissioned the Sainte-Chapelle in the mid-13th century as the palatine chapel of the royal residence on the Île de la Cité.

It was designed to house the Crown of Thorns acquired in 1239 and other Passion relics, including a fragment identified as part of the True Cross, acquired in 1241. The chapel was completed in less than seven years. Damaged during the Revolution, it later became a major monument of 19th-century heritage restoration.

Two-level royal chapel celebrated for its exceptionally extensive 13th-century stained glass. Its documented heritage context includes National monument and former royal palatine chapel; it is also recorded as Within Paris, Banks of the Seine — World Heritage Site (1991). The objects for which the chapel was built were venerated by medieval Christians as relics of the Passion of Christ. Their sacred identity belongs to the history of Christian relic devotion.