Sainte Chapelle - Table of Contents ................. Virtual Tours of Architecture
Upper Chapel stained glass windows
Sainte Chapelle
Paris, France
Sainte Chapelle - Official Website
The most famous features of the
chapel, among the finest of their type in the world, are the great
stained glass windows, for whose benefit the stone wall surface is
reduced to little more than a delicate framework. Fifteen huge mid-13th
century windows fill the nave and apse, while a large rose window with
Flamboyant tracery (added to the upper chapel c.1490) dominates the
western wall. Much of the chapel as it appears today is a re-creation, although nearly two-thirds of the windows are authentic. The chapel suffered its most grievous destruction in the late eighteenth century during the French Revolution, when the steeple and baldachin were removed, the relics dispersed (although some survive as the "relics of Sainte-Chapelle" at Notre Dame de Paris) - Wikipedia (Jan. 2012)
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Following a period of
disaffection for the Sainte-Chapelle in 1803, its stained-glass windows
were stored in a two-meter space, in order to use the building as a
repository for the state's archives. They were admirably restored in
the 19th century, then carefully removed during World War II in
anticipation of the German invasion of Paris. Following the war, every
piece was meticulously replaced. |