Sainte-Chapelle

Almost every wall of Sainte-Chapelle disappears behind stained glass. Built in the 13th century for King Louis IX, the Gothic chapel was designed to house the Crown of Thorns and other Passion relics, turning the royal chapel into a spectacular display of light and colour. Fifteen enormous windows fill the upper chapel with more than a thousand individual scenes from the Bible, unfolding like a vast illuminated storybook. The lower chapel is quieter, with painted columns and a star-filled ceiling, while the delicate architecture and glowing glass make Sainte-Chapelle one of Paris’s most remarkable surviving Gothic interiors.