Sainte- Chapelle (Paris)

4 Boulevard du Palais

Tel. 01- 5340 6080

Subway: Cite

Open: daily

Closed: Jan 1, May 1, Dec 25

 

Description of Sainte Chapelle or Saint Chapel

The Sainte-Chapelle, also known as the Sainte-Chapelle du Palais, is a palatine chapel built on the Île de la Cité, in Paris, at the request of Saint Louis in order to house the Holy Crown of Thorns, a piece of the True Cross, as well as various other relics of the Passion that he had acquired from 1239.

It is the first built of the holy chapels, conceived as a vast building almost entirely glazed, and stands out for the elegance and boldness of its architecture, which manifests itself in a significant elevation and the almost total removal of the walls at the level of the windows of the upper chapel. Although built in a short time of no more than seven years, no construction defects have been found, and the decoration has not been neglected. It makes particular use of sculpture, painting and the art of stained glass: it is its immense original historiated stained glass windows that make up the richness of the Sainte-Chapelle today, because it was deprived of its relics during the French Revolution, and thus lost its main reason for being.

Served by a college of canons until 1787, the Sainte-Chapelle was closed to worship around 1790, then emptied of all its contents and diverted into the headquarters of the Sainte-Chapelle Club. In 1797, it was transformed into an archive depot of the courthouse, and the expansion of it threatens its very existence.

Its rescue was decided in 1836 under the pressure of public opinion, and its restoration was launched a year later and lasted twenty-six years. As an emblematic building of the radiant Gothic style, the Sainte-Chapelle is classified as a historical monument by list of 1862, a year before the completion of its restoration, which is one of the most successful of its time. It is for these relics which constitute, according to the expression of the historian Jean Richard, the palladium ("sacred shield") of the kingdom of France, that the upper chapel is arranged. We were able to define the so-called "relics" canopy as "the key to the entire iconographic program".

Together with the Conciergerie, the Sainte-Chapelle constitutes one of the remains of the Palais de la Cité, which extended over the site covering the Palais de justice in Paris. It is managed by the National Monuments Center, to which it was allocated as an endowment by an order of April 2, 2008. Served by the Cité metro station, the monument welcomed more than 1,375,000 visitors in 2019, making it the third monument managed by the National Monuments Center the most visited after Mont Saint-Michel and the Arc de Triomphe of the Star.

 

History

Acquisition of the Holy Relics

During the siege of Constantinople in 1204, Baldwin VI of Hainaut seized everything he could find in the Boucoleon palace, including the True Cross and the Holy Crown. These relic badges are not sold at first, but remain at the Latin emperor's home and are passed on to his successors. In 1237, the last Latin emperor of Constantinople, Baldwin II of Courtenay, arrives in France as part of a European trip with the aim of finding allies to help him confront the Bulgarians who are besieging Constantinople. In order to finance the defense of his empire, Baldwin pawns the Holy Crown in September 1238, to Nicolo Quirino, a Venetian merchant close to the Doge of Venice. It is planned that the merchant will only become the owner of the relic if Baldwin fails to repay him within four months.

Not inclined to military aid, Saint Louis is on the other hand interested in the purchase of the Holy Crown. After a series of talks in order to verify the authenticity of the relic, he acquired the Holy Crown for 135,000 livres tournois, more than half of the annual income of the royal estate, which, according to de Wailly, for ordinary income alone, amounted in 1238 to 235,285 livres parisis. Under the leadership of the Dominican preachers Jacques and André de Longjumeau, the relic set off for France in 1239. On August 10, she makes a solemn entrance to Villeneuve-l'archevêque (Champagne), then the procession stops in Sens the next day. The king, his brother Robert I of Artois, bishop of Puy, their mother Blanche of Castile and the archbishop of Sens, Guillaume Cornut, go to meet the procession and check the seals, which guarantee the authenticity of the relic. The king lays down his. Then the journey continues by river. On August 18, the Holy Crown enters Paris, in the presence of a large crowd of spectators and all the clergy of the capital. During a great ceremony held the next day, the relic is deposited in the chapel of Saint-Nicolas of the palace of the City. Two years later, in 1241, the king pursued his ambition by acquiring a large piece of the Holy Cross and seven other relics of the Passion of Christ, including the Holy Blood and the Sepulchre Stone. The following year, pieces of the Holy Spear and the Holy Sponge were added to the Holy Collection.

 

Construction

With the acquisition of this collection of relics, Saint Louis decides to build a chapel designed as a real shrine in order to be able to venerate it. However, he does not intend to turn it into a national shrine or a place of pilgrimage of the first order, which is expressed by the absence of external access to the upper chapel, place of exhibition of the great shrine. The new building takes place in the Palais de la Cité, the main place of residence of Saint Louis with Vincennes, and replaces the old Saint-Nicolas chapel which was then destroyed. The choice of a location within the Palace is not trivial: it affirms the sacred link between the relics and the royal crown, as did the Byzantine and Germanic emperors, with respectively the chapels of the Boucoléon and Aachen palaces. This proximity also has a judicial role, because it is on the relics that one takes the oath in the proceedings between lords and vassals.

The chapel must respond to a quadruple vocation: setting for the conservation of relics also allowing their veneration; palatine chapel; seat of a college of canons; and place of worship for the staff of the castle. Not all chapels linked to a royal or episcopal residence necessarily combine all these functions. The oldest example is certainly the Cámara Santa of Oviedo, which dates from the mid-ninth century. It is already a double chapel. In France, the shape of the Sainte-Chapelle crystallizes with the episcopal chapels of Laon, Paris and Noyon, and especially that of the Archdiocese of Reims. It is not the best suited to cope with the influx of crowds of pilgrims: the absence of an ambulatory does not allow a scroll in front of the relics, and visitors must take one of the two spiral staircases of the western facade. It is believed that it is Louis IX's desire to have a quiet place of prayer that motivates this party, and not the king's desire to reserve the relics for the royal family and his entourage, which fits less well with the personality of Saint Louis. Therefore, the chapel does not have a royal tribune, because on ordinary days, only the clergy, the royal family and their guests have access to the chapel. It is connected to the palace by the Merciers gallery, which delimits the may court to the west and serves the king's private apartments. In the chapel, the king has an oratory which is just a niche made in the wall of the fourth bay, to the south. The chapel initially contains no stalls: the audience, including the canons, take their places on the stone benches that run all around. A rood screen is installed only later, a little east of the limit between the second and third spans.

The exact date of the start of construction remains unknown. The work began between the autumn of 1241, the date of the arrival of the relics in Paris, and May 1244, the date on which a papal bull mentions the work for the first time. From 1246, Saint-Louis founded a college of five master chaplains responsible for guarding the relics, maintaining the stained glass windows and lighting fixtures, and celebrating worship in the chapel. The building was officially consecrated on April 26, 1248, the legate of Pope Eudes de Châteauroux consecrating the upper chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross, and the Archbishop of Bourges Philippe Berruyer consecrating the lower chapel dedicated to the Virgin on the same day. The duration of the work is therefore between four and six years, at a total cost of 40,000 livres tournois.

The speed with which the work is being carried out illustrates the financial health of the kingdom, whose treasury can raise large sums in a very short time. Saint Louis is a king builder, who built military buildings, such as the ramparts of Aigues-Mortes and Jaffa; civil buildings such as the castle of Tours, the hospice of the Fifteen and the hotels-Dieu of Compiègne and Pontoise; and especially many religious establishments, such as the abbey of Maubuisson founded by his mother in 1236, and the abbey of Royaumont, of which he is himself the founder. He also pushed the abbot Eudes Clément to rebuild the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Suger. We know that he personally visits the construction sites to control their progress, takes an active part in the scheduling of buildings and sometimes helps the workers. Thus, it is almost certain that he designed the Sainte-Chapelle in close collaboration with the master builder. The architect in charge of the construction remains unknown. The oral tradition, dating back to the sixteenth century, evokes Pierre de Montreuil, architect of the chapel of the Virgin of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the south arm of the transept of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. However, only the style of the sculpture shows a kinship with the Sainte-Chapelle. Different hypotheses have been put forward about the main architect, who has a more conservative conception of architecture than Pierre de Montreuil: Robert Branner evokes Thomas de Cormont, master mason of Amiens Cathedral, while Dieter Kimpel and Robert Suckale evoke his predecessor, Robert de Luzarches. These hypotheses are based in particular on the architectural relationship noted between the Sainte-Chapelle and the Chapel of the Virgin of the Cathedral of Amiens.

Nothing specific is known about the progress of the construction site. The architectural program is accompanied by a symbolic program that manifests itself both in the content of the reliquary and the decoration of the upper chapel. The relics coming from the Byzantine Empire — what contemporaries know perfectly well — the Capetian monarchy thus appears as the true heir of the imperial idea, and in the extension of this idea, Pope Boniface VIII qualifies Louis IX as emperor in his canonization bull of 1297. It is also a question of responding to the translation of the relics of the Virgin from the chapel of the Aachen Palace into a new building in 1238/1239, which is at the beginning of a new pilgrimage, and places the Holy Empire for a while at the center of the Christian world.

At the time of the crusades, the Capetians also sought to appropriate the legitimacy of the monarchy of Israel, which was facilitated by the possession of the rod of Moses, which is among the relics that arrived from Byzantium in the early 1240s and which is kept in the great shrine of the relics of the Passion. Louis IX has a particular predilection for the cult of the Passion, and undoubtedly wants to convey a certain image that shows that he is walking in the footsteps of Christ, which is why he proceeds to wash the feet of the poor every Holy Thursday. But contrary to the gloomy vision of the fourteenth century, the Passion is perceived as inseparable from the Resurrection of Christ, represented on one side of the great shrine.

Despite the representation of scenes of martyrs under the plated arches of the window bases, the symbolic program of the upper chapel and its entire architecture express the optimism, which emanates from the dizzying elevation of the space, the high spire, the dematerialization of the space where the glass wins on the walls, and the harmony of colors. The spire is a new tower of Babel, which, founded on Christianity, does not collapse. The pillars between the spans are provided with the statues of the Twelve Apostles, who by their preaching formed the columns on which the church rests. The stained-glass windows illustrate the history of the people of God, and stage the precursors, namely the prophets and Saint John the Baptist. As a whole, the symbolic program of the Sainte-Chapelle and the significance of its architecture are understood and appreciated by contemporaries. The Sainte-Chapelle is also the successful realization of a dream, that of a building with walls of light or an image of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is also the fusion of all the arts of the thirteenth century: architecture, sculpture, painting, stained glass art, goldsmithing (for the shrouds), illumination (for the missals and evangelicals) and music (for the singing of the canons and their deacons)

 

Organization

Thanks to a privilege attached to the crown of France, the clergy of the Sainte-Chapelle do not depend on the bishop, nor on the parish on the perimeter of which the Palace of the City is located, that of Saint-Barthélémy. So that this exemption is not disputed by the Bishop of Paris, he is not invited to the consecration ceremony, which is presided over by the apostolic legate and the archbishop of Reims.

In 1273, the pope officially attached the clergy of the Sainte-Chapelle to the Holy See. The clergy was installed in January 1246 by an act of Louis IX called the "First Foundation", and consisted of members of three ranks: five master chaplains later called canons, and for each of them, a sub-chaplain and a deacon or subdeacon. The temporal is administered by two churchwardens, whose posts are however abolished under Philip the Bold. On the other hand, his grandson Philip V of France doubles the clergy. In addition, there are sub-chaplains or perpetual foundation chaplains, who are attached to one of the secondary altars, and have the attribution of reading masses for the deceased of the royal family. These perpetual chaplains are not part of the college of canons, which is also never established as a chapter, and the Sainte-Chapelle does not become a collegiate church, so as not to confer on the college the additional rights that would have resulted from it.

The head of the master chaplains is the treasurer, since his main responsibility is the custody of the treasury. At the same time, he is the parish priest of the Sainte-Chapelle, and watches over the souls of its clergy, its lay staff and some palace officers, including the concierge.

The second most important personage of the Sainte-Chapelle is the cantor, who must be present at all services and lead the choir at all festivals, which represents such constraints that it is often difficult to find a person who agrees to be appointed cantor. All the clergy of the Sainte-Chapelle are under house arrest at the palace. He earns comfortable salaries, and the master chaplains ride in carriages and have a stable of four horses, but the service accommodations are cramped and unsanitary.

 

Ceremonies

These are the great ceremonies that punctuate the life of the Sainte-Chapelle throughout the year. It is necessary to distinguish between those relating to the relics of the Passion, which are three in number and were instituted by Saint Louis, and those relating to the cult of Saint Louis himself, established after his canonization in 1297, and which are two in number. The king of course attends these ceremonies, but his presence during the other masses is rather exceptional. For guests or famous people, the king sometimes has extraordinary services celebrated in order to make his guests benefit from the virtues of the relics.

Other ceremonies are those deriving from privileges granted to many religious orders; they can come on any given day of the year and celebrate a Mass with their own clergy. On the night from Thursday to Good Friday, the True Cross is exposed for the sick, especially those suffering from epilepsy, which often ends with attacks of mass hysteria. Masses are celebrated daily in the upper chapel and in the lower chapel, one intended for the court, the other intended for the staff of the palace and the Sainte-Chapelle.

The quality of the music sung reaches a high level, and among the music masters, another office that exists at the Sainte-Chapelle, we find recognized musicians and composers such as Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1698-1704) and Nicolas Bernier (1704-1726). An organ is attested from the beginning; it is replaced in 1493, 1550 and 1762. A vicar appointed from among the canons is in charge of the lower chapel, assisted by one of the chaplains. All the rest of the clergy intervene only in the upper chapel, except of course the many perpetual chaplains who say the foundation masses in front of the side altars, which are distributed over the two chapels. The foundation masses are not to be confused with the Eucharistic celebrations addressed to the circle of faithful who have access to the chapel; they take place in silence and often without assistance. The Liturgy of the Hours was established by Charles VI in 1401, but it turns out that these services are rarely attended by the clergy themselves. It seems that the obligations and duties of the canons are so numerous that they end up no longer being observed; therefore, reforms must be carried out three times, in 1475, 1521 and 1681, each time, on the initiative of the king.

 

Celebrations and services

If the Palace of the City is abandoned as a royal residence by Charles V, the Sainte-Chapelle is honored by all the succeeding dynasties, and even when Paris is ruled by the Duke of Bedford after the Battle of Azincourt in 1415, he is keen to respect the customs. However, royal and sacred weddings have no longer been celebrated in the Sainte-Chapelle since the end of the fourteenth century. Until then, we can mention in particular the coronation and coronation of Princess Marie of Brabant during her nuptials with Philip the Bold, on June 24, 1275 ; the marriage of the future Emperor Henry VII of the Holy Empire with Margaret of Brabant on June 9, 1292; the coronation and coronation of Princess Marie of Luxembourg during her marriage to Charles IV on May 15, 1323; the coronation of Joan of Evreux on May 11, 1326; and the coronation of Isabeau of Bavaria in 1389.

Then the Sainte-Chapelle was only used for funeral services, in particular that of Philippe le Long, celebrated with great pomp every year until the time of Louis XIV. After the death of Louis XV in 1774, a dispute about the right to choose the funeral speaker and to draw up the list of guests, breaks out between the chamber of accounts and the college of canons. The consequence is an order from King Louis XVI, prohibiting for the future any funeral service in the Sainte-Chapelle. Quarrels and legal proceedings brought by members of its clergy to other official bodies also punctuate the history of the Sainte-Chapelle. Outwardly, the canons often give an image of harshness for gain and meanness; they are suspicious and jealously defend their many privileges. To the detriment of the regulations, they sometimes cumulate the functions and neglect their main missions.

In the eighteenth century, the philosophy of the Enlightenment contributes to a questioning of the authenticity of the relics and discredits their veneration. On March 11, 1787, the King's Council of France decides on an administrative and financial rationalization of the various Holy Chapels of the kingdom. The property and rights of the college of canons are placed in receivership, and appointments to vacant positions are prohibited. Thus, the Sainte-Chapelle falls into a lethargy two years before the French Revolution. In 1790, the lower chapel of the Sainte-Chapelle was however still the seat of one of the 52 urban parishes of the diocese of Paris. It is open to the inhabitants of the courthouse and its outbuildings. Its parish priest since 1784, Father Jean-François Roussineau, takes the constitutional oath with the thirteen other priests who make up the clergy of this parish. In February 1791, by a series of decrees of the Constituent Assembly taken on a proposal from the city council of Paris, the Basse-Sainte-Chapelle, like the nine other churches of the Ile de la Cité, loses its status of parish seat in favor of the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris.

 

Reliquary and its evolution

The most significant relics are preserved in the large chest that sits in the apse of the upper chapel, first on a platform accessible by a chapel, then from about 1254 on the vaulted aedicule that we currently see, accessible by two wooden screw staircases, and symbolically sheltered by a canopy. The large chest is a 2.70 m wide goldsmith's safe, with two exterior leaves opening at the back, and two interior lattice leaves as a second protection. The king carries the ten keys on himself at all times, and entrusts them to trusted people only against the signature of letters of credence. The interior contains several reliquaries in the form of crosses, vases, busts and paintings. They contain: the Holy Crown; the Blood of Christ; a large part of the wood of the Spear; pieces of the iron of the Spear, the Purple Cloak, the Reed, the Sponge, the Holy Shroud; linen which the Lord had used to Wash the feet; handcuffs; a piece of the stone of the Holy Sepulchre; a Holy Face ; the Cross of Victory; flags of Childhood; milk of the Virgin; hair of the Virgin; pieces of her veil; miraculous blood from an image of Christ struck by an infidel; the top of the head of Saint John the Baptist; the rod of Moses. In order to facilitate the exposure to the faithful, a pivoting mechanism makes it possible to turn the large casket on its axis. Its decoration was architectural, and included bas-reliefs on three sides: the Crucifixion to the west, the Flagellation of Christ to the north, and the Resurrection of Christ to the south. - The Sainte-Chapelle has, of course, a large quantity of other relics, most of which are kept in two large cupboards in the sacristy, in conjunction with small precious objects.

Twenty-seven years after his death, Louis IX was canonized by Pope Boniface VIII, as before him the sovereigns Clovis and Charlemagne. This formality is important for French royalty, because it honors the entire Capetian dynasty and more firmly establishes the royal power. For its part, the church hopes for favors from the King of France, and more particularly the protection of the papal monarchy. The body of Saint Louis was lifted as part of a great ceremony in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, on August 25, 1298. Then the new silver shawl is carried in procession to the Sainte-Chapelle. Philip the Fair wants it to stay there forever, but the religious of the Saint-Denis abbey oppose it, and in February 1300, the shrine joined the royal necropolis of the Basilica of Saint-Denis. After six years of negotiations with the pope and the monks of Saint-Denis, the king finally obtains to be able to remove the head of his ancestor, except the lower jaw, and place it in a golden reliquary on May 17, 1306. It is transported to the Sainte-Chapelle, near which the Parliament of Paris now has its final seat: the presence of the relic, symbol of a king who embodied fairness and justice, must remind judges that they must uphold the laws, protect good people and do justice to all. Thus, the Sainte-Chapelle becomes, in a way, the head of the kingdom.

The inestimable value of the relics of the Passion does not prevent successive sovereigns from collecting parcels of them in order to offer them to monastic communities and bishops in France and abroad, because the sharing of relics does not diminish their holiness. Louis IX himself established this practice as early as 1248, when he offered plots of land to the Bishop of Toledo. Thus the relics multiply, and to take only the example of the True Cross, eight reliquaries have been created in the provinces. As long as the beneficiaries are religious establishments, these generosity are honorable, but when Charles VI offered the bones of Saint Louis to the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy in 1492, the monks of Saint-Denis decided not to open the chapel anymore. In this case, it is a question of using the relics for purely personal purposes. Still in 1672, Queen Maria Theresa of Austria abuses relics in the same sense, and has a piece of the True Cross taken intended for her son, Louis-François of France, in order to preserve it from accidents. Even thefts diminish the reliquary: pieces of the True Cross enclosed in separate reliquaries are stolen in 1534 and 1555 and will never be found. Since the circle of people with access to it is restricted, it is suspected in 1555 that Henry III and his mother Catherine de Medici had pawned the object in Italy. To calm the rumors, the king takes another piece of the True Cross and places it in a reliquary identical to the one that has just been stolen. But, he also removes five large rubies from the Holy Crown, estimated at 250,000 ECU, in order to pledge them. In 1562, Charles IX removed ornaments from several reliquaries and sent them to the Mint to be melted down.

The French Revolution means the end of the reliquary of the Sainte-Chapelle. Contrary to what is observed elsewhere, the relics themselves are not desecrated, because because of their antiquity, they impose respect even on non-believing revolutionaries. While the great shrine was melted down in 1791, and the reliquaries in 1791 and 1793 especially, always with the aim of recovering the precious metals, the relics were entrusted to Jean-Baptiste Gobel, constitutional bishop. They are transported to Saint-Denis, and it is there that many of them disappear in conditions that have not yet been clarified. The Holy Crown was deposited in the Cabinet of Antiques in 1793, and handed over to Cardinal Jean-Baptiste de Belloy in 1804. It is preserved today in the treasury of Notre-Dame de Paris. The cameo of the Triumph of Germanicus and the bust of Constantine are sent to the cabinet of Medals, and the missal and three evangelicals with gold binding plates to the Manuscript department of the National Library of France. The reliquary of "the stone of the sepulchre" and the ivory Virgin are kept in the department of Art Objects of the Louvre Museum; and the reliquary of Saint Maxien, saint Lucien and saint Junien at the Cluny museum.

 

Years 1787-1837

The date of the definitive end of the cult has not been recorded, but it seems that the suspension of the treatment of the clergy by the decree of May 11, 1787 already puts an end to the regular service of the Sainte-Chapelle. On the eve of the Revolution, she remains officially assigned to worship, but her fate is already more or less sealed, and she is about to be definitively sacrificed to budget restrictions. No difference is made between the Sainte-Chapelle de Paris, which in the eyes of the population is of particular symbolic importance, and the other Holy Chapels of the kingdom, which also have a dedicated clergy. This set causes significant expenses that come directly from the state coffers, while monasteries, colleges and parishes are self-financed by tithes and by rents, which come from land holdings and foundations.

The National Assembly examines the question of the Sainte-Chapelle and orders a report from Canon Sauveur-Jérôme Morand, who is precisely a member of the college of canons of the Sainte-Chapelle. The canon had been in charge of the inventory of the titles of the Sainte-Chapelle in 1787 and combed through all its archives. The result is the book History of the Royal Chapel of the Palace, which is submitted to the Assembly on July 1, 1790. Morand seems to be embarrassed when he explains the adoration of relics, which seems almost suspicious in the eighteenth century. As already mentioned, the treasury of the Sainte-Chapelle was largely destroyed in 1791, long before the Terror and its iconoclasm: it was time for the civil constitution of the clergy, the suppression of monasteries and the reduction of the number of parishes, but nothing yet portends the prohibition of Catholic worship to come. Like the other disused religious buildings, the Sainte-Chapelle should have been sold as a national asset, but it finally remains the property of the state and hosts the Sainte-Chapelle Club. The spire built between 1634 and 1671 only is demolished ; this was already the fourth spire of the Sainte-Chapelle. As soon as the ban on worship is lifted, the lower chapel becomes the meeting place of the Church resistant to the civil constitution.

In 1797, the upper chapel was converted into an archive depot of the courthouse, but neither use prevents the cutting up of the Sainte-Chapelle, which becomes almost an empty wreck: although it remains public property, it is believed necessary to remove the statues of the Apostles from the upper chapel. Two are broken, and ten are sent to the museum of French monuments by Alexandre Lenoir, and will be scattered at the end of this museum in 1816.

The state of the Sainte-Chapelle is deplorable at the end of the Revolution, and there is no longer any liturgical furniture, the stained-glass windows are partially disjointed or broken, the sculpture of the lower portal is mutilated, the architectural decoration of the lateral elevations and the bedside is largely damaged or missing, and even more serious, there is only a temporary frame and no more spire. The sacristy, which contained the Treasure of the Charters upstairs and evoked a small chapel to the north of the bedside, had already been demolished in 1777. Neither under the Empire, nor under the Restoration, the restoration of worship in the Sainte-Chapelle is envisaged. Almost no one cares about the preservation of medieval architectural heritage: only classical or neoclassical architecture is on the rise. In 1811, the shops and masures established between the buttresses were razed as part of the construction of an external staircase attached to the south facade. Creation of the architect Antoine-Marie Peyre, this staircase qualified as neo-Egyptian replaces the remains of that of Louis XII.

In 1825, the reflections on the future of the palace of justice begin: some are attached to the old palace, the others want a completely new palace. The Sainte-Chapelle is perceived as an obstacle by this faction, and moreover it is not parallel or perpendicular to the other buildings, because liturgically oriented east-west. The question of the reconstruction of the courthouse was not decided quickly, which left a reprieve for the Sainte-Chapelle. From then on, the fight led by the few supporters of its preservation is twofold: that for its restoration, and that for its isolation within the Palace of Justice, in order to highlight its elevation and to let enough light penetrate through its stained glass windows. In the mid-1830s, the men who are committed to the medieval architectural heritage are Adolphe Napoleon Didron and Prosper Mérimée. However, the preservation of the monument is only possible through public awareness, which takes place partly thanks to the novel Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo. It was precisely he who pointed out the Sainte-Chapelle as one of the most popular buildings in Paris in an article in the Journal des débats in 1835 and asked that it be given an appearance worthy of its history. At the same time, the young architect Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus presented a work on the Sainte-Chapelle at the Salon of 1835, which earned him a gold medal.

 

Restoration

The courthouse is placed under the supervision of the Council of Civil Buildings, which is made up of a large majority of neoclassical architects. Under the impetus of the historical monuments department, he decided to restore the Sainte-Chapelle in 1836, while keeping control of the project himself. This one is placed under the responsibility of the architect Félix Duban as the main contractor, to which Jean-Baptiste Antoine Lassus is deputy as the first inspector of the works. While the former has no knowledge of medieval architecture, the latter is still inexperienced, but together they make an excellent team. They already know each other from Henri Labrouste's workshop, and collaborate so closely that it is often impossible to attribute the kinship of this or that element of the Sainte-Chapelle to one or the other. They presented a first project to the Civil Buildings Council, and thanks in particular to the first president of the royal court Pierre-Armand Séguier, a credit of 600,000 francs was opened for the restoration, and entered in the public Works budget.

The restoration presents itself as an experimental project, because few major monument restorations had yet been carried out at the time, and often the results were inconclusive. It is also a training site, which allows many craftsmen and artists to gain experience, which they will later be able to apply to other projects. Although it is a risky bet to experiment with new methods on a first-rate monument, the restoration of the Sainte-Chapelle turns out to be one of the most successful restorations of the nineteenth century. Several cases that will become recurrent in the restoration of historical monuments arise for the first time, such as the antagonism between the defenders of heritage and the supporters of progress accusing the former of pasteism, and the conflict with urban planners on the built context of the monument. Between the two main approaches to restoration, which are either the complete and systematic repair, or the replacement of the only missing parts, the second one has been chosen. All the actors show great scrupulousness in the reproduction of the smallest details, and carry out a tedious research work in order to solidly base their contributions on historical realities. The restoration of the nineteenth century is of great scope, to the point that it has sometimes been estimated that only the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries had counted for the building; the main facade, however, retains the appearance acquired after its modification in the fifteenth century, and in particular its large flamboyant rose.

Almost all the exterior cladding must be taken over, because the lack of maintenance for more than fifty years is felt. Since the sculpture, like all the architectural decoration, fulfills a precise role in the design of the building, it seems inconceivable to leave everything as it is. Thus, the sculpture must be completed in large part, which raises the question of the connection with the remaining parts. Sculptors and students of Fine Arts only know classical sculpture, and their restoration experience is usually limited to museum pieces. Nor do we want, like Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in Vézelay, to disassemble the fragments and recreate everything from scratch. It is therefore necessary to develop a specific mortar. For the portals, the only clues are brief descriptions of Abbé Lebeuf. We therefore take as models contemporary achievements in a better state of conservation, as well as miniatures in manuscripts. The two portals are the work of the sculptor Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume. Regarding the statues of the Apostles inside, it is assumed that they still exist, but Duban and Lassus must conduct a real police investigation to find them all. Four had been mutilated during the revolution of 1830 and buried at Mont Valérien; two had been smashed during the Revolution in 1793: they are entirely redone by Delarue and Perrey inspired by the insignificant fragments.

To the question of sculpture, is added that of the architectural polychromy, which was still quite well preserved in the upper chapel, except on the bases of the windows. In the lower chapel, a flood in 1690 had seriously altered the decoration, and on the reverse of the facade, it was absent due to the presence of the organ until the Revolution. For Duban and Lassus, the restoration of the polychromy seems essential to restore the monument to its original appearance, but the approach is nevertheless not unanimous, and some decry it as a ridiculous trick to exalt the religious feeling. Duban is the proponent of a certain restraint in the intensity of the colors, while Lassus is more ambitious. As far as possible, however, the original polychromy is preserved as it is, in particular in the upper chapel, and the colors are revived thanks to a hot wax application, a method that had proven its worth at the Château de Fontainebleau. Wherever it is necessary to repaint, the condition before the work is scrupulously documented by watercolors. This task was entrusted to the painter Auguste Steinheil, who also restored the medallions with glass paste inlays and glassware on the reverse of the facade, and executed the murals under the arches of the facade, where nothing had survived. Samples of the old paintings are taken and subjected to chemical analyzes carried out by Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Jean-François Persoz, in order to find the processes used in the Middle Ages. Thus, it turns out that the medallions of the lower chapel consist of a gilding background applied directly to the wall without any preparation, and a layer of lacquer. We also do not forget the details, such as the paving of the floor executed by Bœswillwald according to the project of Lassus, or the luminaires. But we remain with temporary wooden luminaires, which are quickly dismantled, while the final chandeliers are not delivered until much later. They are curiously executed on a reduced scale, and the number of chandeliers per span thus increases from two to six per span.

The flagship project of the restoration is the construction of the new spire, which was designed by Lassus in 1850, and imitates the flamboyant Gothic style of the fifteenth century. Around 1460, the third spire of the Sainte-Chapelle had been begun, shortly before the death of Charles VII. The second dated from 1383, and the reason for the disappearance of this one, and of the first original spire, is not known. Normally, ethics would have wanted us to restore the last spire completed in 1671, which was in Gothic style despite its construction period, but the "bastard" style of the modern era was frowned upon by lovers of Gothic architecture of the mid-nineteenth century. Otherwise it would have been logical to retain the style of the thirteenth century, but the proposal submitted by Viollet-le-Duc in 1841 was rejected, and it turns out impossible to redraw the original spire because of the scarcity of iconographic representations. To a lesser extent, the problem also arises for the spire of 1460, and Lassus himself recognizes that it is a creation rather than a reconstruction. For the erection of the spire in 1853, the new roof completed no later than 1840 was completely uncovered, and the work is a virtuoso structural work as had not been done since the sixteenth century. It appears as a technical feat, and it is the methods of the Middle Ages that we adopt, instead of assembling prefabricated cast iron parts, as Jean-Antoine Alavoine had done in 1838 at the cathedral of Rouen.

While knowing that the Sainte-Chapelle had only obtained an external staircase at the end of the fifteenth or early sixteenth century, Duban and Lassus propose a new staircase in the thirteenth century style, quite sober, to replace the "neo-Egyptian" staircase. This creation of Peyre was indeed demolished in 1849/1850, but the funds for its neo-Gothic reconstruction were not allocated. In 1849, Duban resigned, and the management of the site was entrusted to Lassus. The restoration is sufficiently advanced to celebrate the "mass of the institution of the magistracy" in the upper chapel this year, in imitation of the masses of the Holy Spirit under the Old Regime. This annual mass remains the only religious use that the building knows after the Revolution. It was abolished in 1895 as part of the first secular laws. Credits became scarce from the beginning of the 1850s, which led to a slowdown in the construction site. Lassus loses the fight for the isolation of the Sainte-Chapelle in 1855, and a short discussion he leads with Napoleon III during his visit does not change the situation. The building had never been completely isolated: the first bay communicated with the Merciers gallery of the palace, rebuilt under Saint Louis. To the north of the apse, stood the Treasury of the Charters, and between the two, the parchment had been built later. But during the major works launched in the area of the Courthouse in 1855, the northern elevation disappears until halfway up behind a new wing, which borders the courtyard from May to the south. Apart from the staircase, other projects remain dead letter: the closing grid of the tribune of the relics, a definitive high altar, and above all the great shrine. Without an altar, a church is not one, and without the pulpit, the Sainte-Chapelle loses all its meaning. Only the altar canopy is rebuilt by reusing elements previously stored at the School of Fine Arts, the former museum of Alexandre Lenoir. Lassus died prematurely on July 15, 1857, aged only fifty. He was replaced by Émile Bœswillwald who completed the restoration in 1863 after twenty-seven years of construction. The classification as historical monuments by the list of 1862 comes so late that it no longer has an impact on the course of the restoration.

The Sainte-Chapelle subsequently became a model of restoration for other churches, whose taste is often tried to imitate, without taking into account that deep research on the primitive state had been carried out upstream, and that their results had dictated the choices of the restorers.

From 2008, several restoration campaigns are led by the chief architects of the historical monuments, Alain-Charles Perrot, then Christophe Bottineau. To date, the masonry and the canopies of the east, north and west elevations (with the fifteenth-century rose) have been restored.

 

Conservation measures

Like any monument open to the public, the Sainte-Chapelle is continually exposed to risks of degradation. Unable to prevent them, the conservatives are still trying to minimize them and slow them down as much as possible. Several measures were then put in place.

There are in particular protective canopies, studied so as not to harm the general legibility of the building. Made from a thermoformed glass on an imprint of a chosen stained glass window, they then take up all its details and defects. Placed in the medieval locksmithing of the Sainte Chapelle, their role is to stop the external alteration factors that can damage the canopies, while ensuring the building a certain tightness.

Although it may seem insignificant, the delimitation of the space reserved for visitors by barriers proves to play a great role in safeguarding the works and the building itself. Indeed, they keep the public away from the works, preventing them from accidentally touching or damaging the objects on display. These barriers also fulfill a vandalism prevention role, by their mere presence, they deter the few people who could be ill-intentioned.

In order to preserve the Sainte-Chapelle as well as possible, conservators and restorers frequently monitor the general condition of the building in order to anticipate certain damage and intervene before they become too important.

 

Architecture

General overview

This masterpiece of radiant Gothic architecture responds to a plan of great simplicity without collateral, nor transept, nor ambulatory, which makes one of the two main characteristics of the Holy Chapels, the other being an elevation on a single level, without large arcades, which results from the absence of collateral, nor triforium. Regularly oriented, the chapel has two floors, which gives two superimposed chapels, called the lower chapel and the upper chapel. The ensemble is preceded by a porch on the side of the western facade, and has four long bays (plus a choir bay) as well as a seven-sided apse, all vaulted with ogives. Stair turrets located at the north-west and south-west corners flank the facade and allow intercommunication between the lower chapel and the upper chapel. Under the Ancien Régime, access to the upper chapel was mainly via the Merciers gallery which led to the porch on the north side, but an external staircase existed at certain times. The fourth bay of the upper chapel has a recess on the south side, which protrudes slightly between the buttresses. This niche is called the oratory of Saint Louis.

Externally, the Sainte-Chapelle is 36.0 m long, 17.0 m wide and 42.5 m high without the spire. It reaches a height of 33.25 m, which places its summit at 75.75 m above ground level. Internally, the two chapels are 33.0 m long and 10.7 m wide. The height under the vaults of the lower chapel is only 6.6 m, while the upper chapel rises to 20.5 m. By its internal area, the Sainte-Chapelle is comparable to a village church, but the width of the single vessel is comparable to the nave of the cathedral of Laon, and its height is comparable to the first Gothic cathedrals, including the cathedral of Noyon. Until 1777, a small annex building called the Treasury of the charters was located to the north of the apse, and reproduced on a small scale the plan of the Sainte-Chapelle, which made it possible to better understand its dimensions. The lower level served as a sacristy, while the room located at the level of the upper chapel hosted the acts and the royal seals, as well as two reliquary cabinets guarded day and night by one of the canons. The two levels were connected to the Sainte-Chapelle by means of short galleries. There is a similar layout at the Sainte-Chapelle in Vincennes.

 

Side elevations and headboard

The Sainte-Chapelle is designed as a glass shrine highlighting the relics that were kept there. The lateral elevations and the bedside are similar, except that the sections of the apse are, of course, narrower. The first and last sections of the apse are even narrower than the others, because the architect wanted them not to be seen when entering the chapel, in order to visually move the apse back and make the building appear longer. The great height of the whole and the particularly protruding and strictly vertical buttresses are the most striking features of the building. The architect did not use any subterfuge to visually reduce the size of the buttresses, which he could have done by pushing the windows outwards and creating a passageway or Champagne passage inside. But despite their projection, the buttresses are insufficient to counterbalance a building of such height and to oppose enough resistance to the thrust of the vaults. Buttresses were not conceivable in the absence of collateral, because their abutments must necessarily take a step back from the walls.

The solution was the innovation of a metal chaining, very early for the time since it was rediscovered only at the end of the nineteenth century. The medallions are horizontal and cross the pillars, but remain imperceptible because they merge with the iron bars that separate the different registers of the stained glass windows. The buttresses as well as the walls present three retreats by means of glazes forming a teardrop: at the threshold of the windows of the two floors, as well as at the intersection between the two floors. At this level, a frieze of acanthus leaf hooks runs all around. At the level of the windows of the upper chapel, the buttresses also have four levels of teardrops. The windows occupy the entire width available between the buttresses: on the left and on the right, there is just enough room for the two thin columns of the infill. Practically all the carved decoration is concentrated on the upper parts, near the roof. Each window is surmounted by a gable surmounted by a finial, the creeping ones being trimmed with hooks. The windows themselves have archivolts molded with tori and gorges, which, when falling down, merge into the buttresses. A frieze alternating brackets and applied leaves completes the archivolts. As for the buttresses, they are cushioned by richly decorated pinnacles equipped with gargoyles, connected to each other by an up-to-date balustrade pierced by narrow three-lobed arcades, with shamrocks on the spandrels. These railings are supported on a cornice of hooks 39,40.

To the south, the wall of the oratory of Saint Louis is notable for its lily flower balustrade, by two gargoyles and by bust figures holding phylacteries at the top of each corner. The windows are rectangular, and in the center of the trumeau, we can see a small statue of the Virgin in a niche, which marks the top of a gable. Trimmed with hooks and adorned with plated lattices, it rests on undulating pillars, which, like the busts and bellows on the plated lattice, announce the flamboyant Gothic style. Two large niches with statues and their finely chiseled canopies decorate the corners and house statues of Saint Louis and a bishop. These facilities date back to the period of Louis XI. The gable suggests a portal, but it is not so: we only find a niche under a vault of ogives. This is the old cemetery chapel, removed in favor of the restoration of the primitive state in the lower chapel.

The roof is covered with large sheets of lead. At the eastern limit of the ridge line, there is a monumental statue of the Archangel Saint Michael, designed to rotate with the sun by means of a clock mechanism. The spire of 1853-1855 was entirely executed in wood and coated with historiated leadwork. Of octagonal plan, it consists of a basement, two openwork floors of arcades and a high point which is the spire proper. Fine steeples surround the first floor and are connected to it by buttresses. The details abound: foliage, hooks, florets and golden fleurs-de-lis on the edges of the tip. Gold rods cover the joints between the lead sheets. Colossal statues of the twelve Apostles are leaning against the three-lobed veneered arches of the basement, at the rate of two per face, except in front of the west and east faces, where the creepers of the roof do not leave room. According to a medieval custom, Saint Thomas received the features of Lassus; we recognize him thanks to his attribute, the square. The painter Steinheil lent his features to Saint Philip. Other, smaller statues are found at the birth of the point; they are angels carrying the instruments of the Passion. The statues were executed by the workshop of Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume, by Michel-Pascal and Aimé-Napoléon Perrey, who usually collaborate on the construction sites of Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc. Exhibited at the Universal Exhibition of 1855 before being mounted, they were favorably received by the public, and the spire aroused a concert of praises for its technical prowess, the archaeological scruple of its designer, and its elegance. She served as inspiration for the arrow of Viollet-le-Duc at Notre-Dame de Paris.

 

Western facade

The western facade is organized on four levels: the gable flanked by the small spires of the two corner stair turrets; the large flamboyant rose window from the years 1485-1495 which illuminates the upper chapel; and the two floors of the porch which are distinguished only by their height.

A particular decorative effort has been made for the octagonal turrets and their spires, of which the one in the north-west corner is no longer complete. The arrows rest on round platforms, and their edges are trimmed with hooks. The upper floor of the turrets is set back by the previous one, which allows the decoration by plated arches, at the rate of one per face. The penultimate floor is located behind the steeples that cushion the buttresses, and doors open there towards a corridor connecting the two turrets, passing behind an up-to-date balustrade reminiscent of that of the false porch under the oratory.

The gable is set back from this balustrade decorated with lily flowers, and is pierced by a rose window which illuminates the attic. The network of this rosette is today limited to the forms of inscription of the five clubs and the central pentalobe. Three feigned oculi surround the rose window. They are of a particular shape which results from the superposition of a square and a quatrefoil, like the oculi of the floor of the galleries of the nave of Saint-Martin-aux-Bois, and of the transept of Saint-Antoine de Compiègne. The creeping ones are trimmed with hooks, and connected to the turrets by up-to-date arcades topped with finials. All these details are difficult to appreciate by the visitor, who can hardly contemplate the facade with sufficient hindsight. On the other hand, the huge rose window cannot go unnoticed. It seduces by the organic shapes of its network, which is articulated around a central hexalobe. We can generally distinguish six identical festoons, each of which has a primary network of three specks, one of which, symmetrical, is attached to the central oculus and points outwards, while the other two, asymmetrical, are attached to the flanks of the first, and point towards the center of the rosette. The secondary network comprises three small specks for symmetrical shapes, and four for asymmetrical shapes. The spandrels also have speckles, and the plated network on the walls remaining free is always a variation of the same subject, essential to the flamboyant period.

The two lower levels of the facade have the portals, which are somewhat hidden by the double porch. The architecture of this one is above all functional. It is supported by four buttresses looking to the west, which delimit two particularly narrow arcades, and a wide open arcade. The two buttresses framing the central arch are narrower, but otherwise analogous to the buttresses of the lateral elevations. They also end with steeples. Each floor ends with a frieze of hooks and a balustrade. The arcades have molded archivolts and open between two pairs of columns with capitals. The capitals of the narrow arcades are located largely below the fall of the arches, especially on the ground floor, where they are aligned with those of the central arcade.

What makes the interest of the lower part of the facade, are of course the portals. Their statuary had been completely destroyed during the Revolution, leaving only the outlines. We owe the reconstruction to Geoffroy-Dechaume, who also conducted the preliminary research. The Virgin and Child of the trumeau of the lower portal was reputed miraculous: Around 1304, the theologian John Duns Scotus would have prayed in front of this statue, and she would have bowed her head as a sign of approval of the theory of the Immaculate Conception taught by this Doctor. The base of the trumeau and the stylobates on which the two groups of four columns rest are covered with diamond-shaped stripes, where fleurs-de-lys and Castilian castles alternate.

The tympanum represents the Coronation of the Virgin and is inspired by the north portal of the western facade of Notre-Dame Cathedral, as well as the main portal of the basilica of Longpont-sur-Orge. The Last Judgment is depicted on the portal of the upper chapel. The main iconographic elements are attested for the original portal. A blessing Christ welcomes the faithful from the trumeau. Cords of flowers and foliage are inserted between the columns, the stylobates of which have small bas-reliefs with scenes from the Old Testament, including the story of Jonah, not unrelated to the main subject. The lintel represents the general resurrection of the dead, with in the middle, Saint Michael carrying out the weighing of the souls on both sides, the dead who raise their funerary slab to the sound of the children of the angels. On the left, Abraham receives in his bosom the chosen souls, symbolized by small naked figures. On the tympanum, Christ the Redeemer figures. The Virgin is seated on her right, and Saint John on her left, interceding for the fate of souls. Two kneeling angels hold instruments of the Passion (Crown of Thorns and Spear on the left, Cross and Nails on the right). The three arches of the archivolt contain sixteen angels who lead souls to heaven, bring crowns, and hold censers, then two groups of chosen ones: ten martyrs who show the instruments of their sufferings, and the twelve Apostles. Baron Ferdinand de Guilhermy praises the sculptor's patience and skill, and reports that the portal was once famous among hermetists, and that singular interpretations have been given in the treatises on occult sciences. The original leaves remain, but their state of conservation motivated the establishment of copies. They have an ogival arch with crosses and finial.

 

Lower chapel

The dark atmosphere of the lower chapel and its proportions evoke a crypt, but the finesse of the supports contrasts with this impression, and the decor shows the same elegance as in the upper chapel. As Jean-Michel Leniaud expresses it: "everything is precious and delicate there: molding of the bases, proportions of the columns, sculpture of the capitals with hooks and plants, drawing of the tailors, profile of the ribs which interpenetrate at the fall, recess of the etruscans which support the central vault, originality of the network of the bays of the nave". So that the lower chapel can support the weight of the upper chapel, each of the pillars is split by an isolated column, placed a short distance inside the nave and the apse. The result is false aisles and a pseudo-ambulatory as in Morienval: in both cases, the gap between walls and columns is too small to allow unhindered circulation, and the only reason for the row of columns is the consolidation of the whole. The false aisles and the pseudo-ambulatory are vaulted with pointed arches independently, and their vaults are so narrow that the arcades separating their spans are almost invisible between the vaults. What we see are the etruscans in the form of a half-arch with a trefoil head, with openwork spandrels. Two iron bars also connect each of the columns to the pillars engaged in the walls. The free columns have capitals with eight-pointed star-shaped cutouts, because the number of ribs to be supported is eight: four ogives and four doublets. The interpenetration of the ribs is made necessary due to the small size of the cutters. The profile is of a thinned torus in the shape of an almond, accompanied by two tori for the warheads, and four tori for the doublets.

On the side of the walls, the ogives and doubleaux fall back on beams of a column with a beaked bevel and four columns, two of which are unrelated to the vaulting and are part of the plated arches of the base of the windows. The formerets blend into these arcatures. There are five of them per span, and they fall back on a total of five wooden columns using octagonal cutouts. Trefoil heads are inscribed in the arches in a third point, and shamrocks are pierced in the spandrels. The bases rest on stone benches to the right of the walls. The windows, pushed high under the vaults like the high windows of a small church with three levels of elevation, are almost triangular on the lateral elevations. Their primary network is formed precisely by a triangle with curvilinear sides, in which a round oculus is inserted. The secondary network comprises a hexalobe for the oculus, two clubs for the parts of the triangle that remain free, and two trefoil heads for the spandrels below the triangle, on the left and on the right. As for the ribs of the vaults, the veneered arches and the vaults, the molding is toroidal, which gives great coherence to the whole chapel. The apse has windows of more conventional proportions, because the narrowness of the seven sides gives them pedestals, which are missing on the triangular windows. Nevertheless very small, the seven windows of the apse are provided with a filling of two lancets in which three-lobed heads are inscribed, the mullions being carrying capitals. The two lancets are surmounted by a hexalobe. To the left of the apse, we can see a liturgical pool reconstructed by Bœswillwald, and it is uncertain whether it takes up an original layout.

The architectural polychromy with its very intense complexions deeply marks the Sainte-Chapelle. It is intended to highlight the stained glass windows, which in the lower chapel were all torn off in 1691 and replaced by white glass. To mask the damage caused by the flood of 1690, the walls had been whitewashed at the same time. Since the restoration led by Bœswillwald, they have burst out again in red and blue, and gold is used to enhance all the molding, the capitals and keystones. Small gold motifs are applied to the vaults, on the columns and on the walls; they are essentially fleurs-de-lis, castles of Castile in reference to Blanche of Castile, and plant motifs on the spandrels of the arcades. This decoration is based on the remains found, with the exception of the false tapestries of the arcades, which were imagined by Bœswillwald. They do not correspond to the project elaborated by Lassus, who had wanted a diagonal grid, in imitation of manuscript backgrounds. The current stained-glass windows are the work of Steinheil, and use the grisaille technique. Steinheil also returned the medallions, which were initially located in the middle of each series of arcatures. Very few vestiges have survived of these thirteenth-century paintings enriched with glass paste inlays and glassware; in the apse, an Annunciation was revealed in 1849, as well as a Virgin and Child surrounded by two angels. These two medallions were repainted after chemical analysis, but the other paintings on the bedside were too erased to guess their patterns. The twelve medallions of the nave represent the Apostles, and serve as consecration crosses. These are apparently not real reconstructions, but the subject of the Apostles was a sure given, and the iconography is essentially taken from the missal of Saint Louis. As for the floor, it was still covered with tombstones at the end of the restoration in the mid-nineteenth century, but it has since been redone. The lower chapel is now used as a souvenir shop of the National Monuments Center, and is apparently not perceived as interesting enough to justify a enhancement. The sparing lighting reinforces the crypt atmosphere, while the dark character of the chapel is largely attributable to the adjoining buildings of the courthouse, and not a wish of the architect.

 

Upper chapel

The multitude and intensity of the colors mark the most the atmosphere of the upper chapel, as well as its elegance and its height, which is equivalent to almost twice its width. Although luminous, the upper chapel is generally not flooded with light, because the stained-glass windows of the thirteenth century are semi-opaque. The elevation is much simpler and more clearly structured than in the lower chapel, and the entire architecture of the Sainte-Chapelle has been designed to allow this large single space encumbered by no free pillars, which highlights the verticality of the walls almost entirely hollowed out. As the exterior layout suggests, no gaps remain between the columns of the windows and those of the supports of the vault. It is undoubtedly to reinforce the dematerialization effect that the master builder made no concessions to the aesthetics of the exterior of the chapel, and did not push the stained-glass windows outwards to make the buttresses appear less prominent. There is therefore no messenger at the bottom of the windows, and their network is not split as in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which would have given an effect of depth which was apparently not wanted. This party may pass for conservative for the 1240s, but it was simplicity that was sought, and not the multiplication of perspectives according to the position adopted by the spectator, characteristic of most large Gothic buildings. Nevertheless, certain tricks have been used to make the vessel appear longer: the two right sides of the apse are 35 cm narrower than the others and are only discovered when approaching, and the windows of the apse are lower than the others: they measure 13.45 m instead of 15.35 m. The bedside therefore seems more distant from the western portal than it really is. At the same time, the narrowness of the sections of the apse and the approximation of the strongly protruding vaults, acting as lampshades, would have caused the tops of the windows to lose sight if they were higher. The difference in height of the windows is not easily seen, nor the domed shape of the vaults of the apse that results from it. The width of the side windows is 4.70 m, and that of the bays of the bedside of 2.10 m.

The windows are inscribed directly in the formerets, whose capitals are located higher than those of the ogives and doubleaux, which is common. They are almost as small as the round capitals of the windows, aligned with the first ones. The primary network and the secondary network both have capitals, which gives three capitals which rub shoulders on the left and on the right (with those of the formerets) and three also for the central mullion. This is common to the two lancets that form the primary network, and which are surmounted by an oculus in which a hexalobe is inscribed, a common motif with the lower chapel. The secondary network of the large lancets consists of two lancets with three-lobed heads, surmounted by a four-leaf, the spandrels being openwork. The bays of the apse are different, and present two lancets with three-lobed heads not inscribed, surmounted by three shamrocks. — The vaults are painted in blue and enhanced with small gold stars, and not with fleurs-de-lis as on the ground floor. The profile of the ogives and doubleaux is analogous to the lower chapel, and they fall back on columns of two different diameters, a little stronger for the doubleaux. Counting the columns of the formers and windows, we note four different diameters. This adjustment to the strictly necessary is characteristic of the virtuosity of the radiant period, and makes it possible overall to reduce the scale of the supports. The systematic use of monolithic barrels goes in the same direction. The capitals of the ogives and doubleaux are arranged with beaks, and those of the ogives are placed at an angle in order to orient themselves directly towards the ogives, an arrangement that is known from the end of the Romanesque period.

The painted decoration of the supports is more complex than on the ground floor, and dates largely from origin. The Apostles who are an integral part of the symbolic program are no longer: the six original statues that had found their place after their restoration in the mid-nineteenth century joined the others at the Cluny Museum. Experts have long debated whether the Apostles are not a little later than the chapel, and their style perceived as "modern" by the revolutionaries would have saved them, but some undeniably have the invoice of the 1240s. Now, all the statues bear a consecration cross and therefore must have existed in 1248, but they may be the work of two different artists. The painted hangings under the veneered arches were imagined by Lassus, and the medallions on the theme of martyrdom were restored, and partly completely redone, by Steinheil. The arches are more elaborate than in the lower chapel, and take up the pattern of the secondary network of the side windows of the upper chapel. These are three arcades in a third point, each resected in two lancets with three-lobed heads, which are surmounted by a clover. A frieze of foliage runs below the window sills, and cords of foliage surmount the arcades. The spandrels are trimmed with busts of angels in high relief. An exuberant decoration also exists on the reverse of the western facade, where a passageway protected by a balustrade connects the two stair turrets, at the foot of the large flamboyant rose window 9.00 meters in diameter. The portal opens under a broken archway, and two narrower arcades in a third point flank it. The tympanums of these three arcades were painted by Steinheil, who could not rely on anything existing, because the presence of the organ tribune had meant that this wall remained blank. The motifs are the three scenes of sacrifice from the Old Testament; a blessing Christ flanked by praying angels and framed by the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah; then the three figures of the sacrifice of the Cross: the immolation of the Paschal Lamb ; the blood on the houses of the Hebrews (that the angel of death might spare the firstborn); and the brazen serpent of Moses in the wilderness. — The floor paving was designed by Lassus after drawings by Steinheil, but realized by Bœswillwald. It consists of hard stone engraved in hollow, where various colored mastics have been inlaid. In the nave, scrolls frame birds, quadrupeds and heraldic emblems, and in the apse, the four rivers of paradise have been represented as a symbol of divine grace, as well as the seven sacraments that spring like springs from a rock.

In the middle of the apse, rises the tribune of the relics, which had been completely dismantled at the Revolution. The stone canopy that surmounted the shrine had been transported to Saint-Denis, and one of the wooden stairs and fragments of the arcades had remained at the Petit-Augustins convent after the abolition of the museum of French Monuments. These remains were recovered by Duban and Lassus, and installed again in their authentic location, where the missing parts were redone in a long and patient work that lasted from 1843 to 1850. This long delay is explained by the difficulty of defining all the details. Indeed, the Pontifical of Poitiers of the Duke of Bedford and an engraving by Nicolas Ransonnette were the only iconographic sources known, and helped to specify the project. The lateral arches are in any case analogous to those of the window bases, but the central platform has a particularly rich decoration. Concerning the six angels on the spandrels of the arcades that support it, they do not appear on the old representations, and we are not sure if they correspond to lapidary remains found, or if they are a fantasy of the restorers. In any case, these are works of undoubted quality. The scarcity of credits from 1850 prevented the realization of the fence grid, the high altar and the large chapel. Thus, the canopy, a symbol of royal power, has never regained its function, and the symbolic program of decoration, of which the stained-glass windows, the Apostles and the scenes of martyrs of the medallions are part, remains incomplete without the bas-reliefs of the great shrine: with the scenes of the Crucifixion, the flagellation and the Resurrection of Christ, they marked its culmination. The temporary altar used for the magistracy institution masses has been dismantled and is stored in the attic.

 

Stained Glass Windows

The glazed area of the upper chapel covers about 615 m2 according to Louis Grodecki, without the rose window. All the stained glass windows were in place from the beginning, but a significant number were redone in the mid-nineteenth century, without altering the overall rendering and in perfect respect of the original iconography and style. The thirteenth century knew two types of stained glass windows: those intended for the high windows, the transept and the apse, which were designed to be seen from afar and transmitted symbolic messages often focused on royal or ecclesiastical power, and those intended for collateral, which were designed to be contemplated up close and include narrative cycles, with an iconography very close to illuminations. Since the Sainte-Chapelle has no side windows, the windows descend quite low, and the viewer is very close to the lower registers of the stained-glass windows, which motivated the choice of the type of stained-glass windows usually specific to the side windows. But the side windows reach almost fifteen meters in height, and the reading of the middle and upper registers becomes very difficult because of the remoteness and the effort of concentration required to decipher these miniatures. Their high number highlights their small size: there are no less than one thousand one hundred and thirteen scenes. For this reason, the Sainte-Chapelle has remained the only religious building where this type of stained glass has been generalized. It was partially introduced into the high windows of the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand and Tours, but these tests remained without success. Regardless of their meaning, the dominant red and blue stained-glass windows give the chapel its brilliance, and the architectural polychromy is centered on these same colors.

The reading is done from left to right, and from bottom to top, line by line. There is no entanglement of scenes, but the drawing of the fittings delimiting the panels puts some of them forward to the detriment of the others, and the visitor can deduce a hierarchical relationship which, in reality, does not exist. The narrative always remains linear, except that certain types of scenes are recurrent: they are those that relate a coronation. Due to lack of space, other scenes useful for understanding have sometimes not been selected for the stained glass windows. There are eight side windows, seven apse windows, and the western rose window. Each of the windows presents a different drawing, essentially composed of ellipses or mandorls, quadrilobes, rhombuses and circles. Usually, we can distinguish between the historiated panels, the framing and the background mosaic, but sometimes the representation is denser, and the background mosaic is deleted. The reading begins with the first window to the north and the beginning of the Old Testament, and ends with the rose window dedicated to the Apocalypse: its stained-glass windows date from the end of the fifteenth century and are clearer, but the subject was already the same in the thirteenth century, as the fragments found prove. The narrative program begins with the Creation, illustrates the history of the Hebrew people until their settlement in Israel with the installation of royalty, and ends with the story of Saint Louis receiving the relics of the Passion. There is inserted a prophetic cycle around the life of Jesus Christ, framed by the lives of Saint John the Baptist who announces the Lamb of God, and of the apostle John who has the vision of the Apocalypse. The stained-glass windows referring to the history of the people of God are gathered in the nave where the faithful take their seats; their message is easily understandable for anyone who has a good knowledge of the Old Testament. The stained-glass windows with prophetic subjects convey a more spiritual message, and are therefore grouped in the apse, reserved for the clergy. There are no hagiographic stained-glass windows, Saint John the Apostle and Saint John the Baptist not being represented as saints.

 

Foreshadowing and posterity

The Saint-Louis chapel of the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, work of Pierre de Montreuil, is contemporary with the Sainte-Chapelle of the Palace. It stands out in particular for its rectangular windows and its passageway crossing the buttresses and passing in front of the windows. We do not identify any common features with the Sainte-Chapelle of the palace, other than the very type of the Sainte-Chapelle, which is however older and finds its origin in the cámara Santa of Oviedo, and has found its characteristic shape with the episcopal chapels of Laon, Noyon, Paris and Reims. It is assumed that the sites of the Saint-Louis chapel and the Sainte-Chapelle of the palace had little contact. The Saint-Louis chapel belongs to an architectural trend of the 1240s which is represented only by creations by Pierre de Montreuil, and which includes the chapel of the Virgin of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Près (destroyed), the refectory of the same abbey (also destroyed) and the last three chapels of the north side of the nave of Notre-Dame de Paris. Its characteristics are a taste for small-scale buildings, subtle effects in the molding, complexity in the design of the multi-lobed oculi, and a search for clarity to the detriment of the color of the stained glass windows. A second architectural current of the Paris of the 1240s is represented by the creations of Jean de Chelles, including in particular the northern cross of Notre-Dame de Paris, begun around 1246/1247, but whose completion was delayed due to the Crusades, and part of the southern cross.

The Sainte-Chapelle itself belongs to a third current, which is initiated by the narthex of the old church of the Temple, a little earlier: the design of its bays is taken up by the Sainte-Chapelle. Even before its completion, around 1245, the star-shaped tailors of the lower chapel, the feigned oculi of the gable and the drawing of the side windows of the upper chapel were taken over by the abbey of Saint-Martin-aux-Bois (where the drawing in question is on the dummy bays of the side walls). By its very high bedside with a single level of elevation with the "glass cage" effect, Saint-Martin-aux-Bois has no equal, but we can't help but think that the idea came from the Sainte-Chapelle, although the style is very different. Another very singular building is the church of Saint-Sulpice-de-Favières, which presents another form of bedside equally flooded with light, which sometimes motivates the comparison with Saint-Martin-aux-Bois. Stylistically, we note above all a proximity to the Saint-Louis chapel of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, but the veneered arches are the same as in the lower chapel of the Sainte-Chapelle, and the side windows imitate the filling of the side windows of the upper chapel, while renouncing the molding. Finally, the apse of the Saint-Étienne Cathedral in Meaux, redesigned in the mid-thirteenth century, has fillings and a triforium evoking the Sainte-Chapelle, and more particularly its Treasury of Charters (demolished). The characteristic feature of this architecture is a sense of economy or a very short construction period, which pushes to go to the essentials, and which gives strength and unity in the composition, and a rationality in the choice of decoration.

Between the beginning of the fourteenth century and the middle of the sixteenth century, ten Holy Chapels were built by members of the royal family or the high nobility, and six of them still remain. Due to the long period of more than sixty years that separates these imitations from the Parisian model, we can no longer identify direct stylistic influences: it is only the idea and the concept that have been taken up. There are also many abbey chapels, including those of Saint-Germer-de-Fly and Chaalis. The first appears in many respects as a reduced-scale version of the Parisian model, and is only slightly later. It does not have a low chapel, but the plan and the elevation are identical, and the side windows follow the same design. Even the frieze of brackets below the window sills reappears. The windows of the apse are slightly different, and the veneered arches are of the same style, without being identical. The only notable difference concerns the supports, characterized by paired barrels, columns of the formerets descending to the ground, and round capitals as on the mullions of the windows. Of course, the numerous thirteenth-century stained-glass windows, the architectural polychromy, the medallions and inlays and the statues of the Apostles are specific to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, and no other chapel shows the same exuberance of the decor. — After the restoration of the mid-nineteenth century, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and its stained-glass windows served as a model for the architect Tony Desjardins for the chapel of the Chartreux Institution in Lyon, begun in 1859 and equipped with stained-glass windows painted by Steinheil. Between 1916 and 1920, the Archbishop Quigley Preparatory seminary in Chicago also appears as a miniature of the Sainte-Chapelle, and its stained-glass windows are inspired by it.

 

Worship in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

If the Sainte-Chapelle has officially been disused from worship since the Revolution, it is periodically returned to its primary destination. Thus, the Catholic Group of the Palace, which brings together magistrates, lawyers, clerks, and staff members of the Paris courthouse, has ensured the Catholic spiritual presence in the Sainte-Chapelle since the interwar period. The chaplain of the group celebrates an annual mass of remembrance on All Saints' Day, as well as a mass on Saint-Yves in May, one of the patron saints of lawyers.

On March 21, 2014, on the occasion of the opening of the Saint-Louis year, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, led the Holy Crown of Thorns in procession from Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris to the Sainte-Chapelle for the first time since the Old Regime60. A solemn mass was celebrated there, and broadcast live on a giant screen installed on Place Louis-Lépine.

 

Music

Artus Aux-Couteaux, haute-cons and music teacher in 1634
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, succeeding François Chaperon, was appointed master of music on June 28, 1698, a highly envied position, the last he held until his death on Sunday, February 27, 1704. He composed his last masterpieces there, among which we can mention the Oratorio, the Judgment of Solomon H.422; the Motet for the offertory of the Red Mass H.434; The Te deum in 4 voices H.148; The Mass of the Dead in 4 voices H.7; the De profundis H.213; The Psalms of Darkness H.228, H.229 and H.230; The Elevation H.273; the Oratorio In Nativitate Domini Jesu Christi Canticum H.421 ; the Motet dedicated to Louis XIV In honorem Santi Ludovici Regis Galliae Canticum H.365; and one of his most beautiful masses written for the Assumption of the Virgin, Assumpta est Maria, sex vocibus cum symphonia H.11, H.11 a.
Nicolas Bernier after the death of his illustrious predecessor was appointed music master on April 5, 1704.