In the center of Paris there is a small Gothic chapel called Saint-Chapelle. You have to know where to go, you won't stumble across it. It is inside the Palace of Justice, through a security check and up a winding staircase. Jon and I had seen postcards of the interior stained glass windows and sought it out at the end of a long day in the Louvre. We arrived half and hour before closing and found out it would cost us 10 euros each to get in. We nearly passed it up.
But after entering the lower chapel, and making our way up the cramped stairs we were met by a masterpiece of light and color. It was similar to the feeling of entering the Sistine Chapel and suddenly discovering what all the fuss is about.
The small chapel has no walls, just huge windows all around you. And each of the tall windows are made up of huge areas of stained glass, in bright colors, depicting hundreds of individual scenes and beautiful designs. Someone likened it to "standing in crystal". It is well worth the visit. Even Adolf Hitler visited this chapel before the war. It didn't stop him from bombing the very place just a few years later.
The chapel was built by Louis IX in 1241 as part of his palace and a place to house some expensive holy relics he had acquired. But the windows don't look old, and although most are original, they have obviously been restored and cleaned. I can see my 10 euros were well spent.
I was curious as to how such a beautiful glass building could have been preserved for 800 years and still look as rich and regal as when it was built. I found that the glass windows had been removed and stored away twice, and for very different reasons. After the French Revolution, since the building was associated with royal excess, the stained glass was removed to turn the chapel into a more practical storage facility. Then again, the windows were removed to protect them from the bombing of Paris in WWII. It is staggering to think of the painstaking work of making this magical building, but to take it all down and put it back together again is even more amazing.
