Le Sainte-Chapelle - Paris, France

The interior of Sainte-Chapelle - Paris, France 

The Sainte-Chapelle, also known as the Holy Chapel, is a gothic Chapel on Ile de la Cite in Paris. The Chapel, built during the reign of King Louis IX in the courtyard of the royal palace , was consecrated on the 26th of April 1248. It was built to house Christ's crown of thorns, the image of Edessa and 30 other relics of Christ. King Louis purchased the relics from a Latin Emperor named Baldwin II in Constantinople.

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The interior of Sainte-Chapelle - Paris, France

The chapel is famous for it's stained glass and rose windows which were added to the chapel in the 15th century. Two-thirds of the windows in the church today are authentic. The church suffered during the French revolution as the steeple and "the canopy of state"were removed, the relics dispersed and other melted down. The few relics which remain are in the treasury at Notre-Dame. The chapel was then requisitioned in 1803 and used as an archival depository. In order to allow more light into the building, two meters of glass were removed. This glass was either destroyed or sold.

The interior of Sainte-Chapelle - Paris, France

The stonework has been kept to a bare minimum and the walls are covered by 6458 square feet of stained glass which is considered the best in the world. The windows are dominated by Reds and Blues and illustrate 1130 figures form the bible. Sainte-Chapelle stands directly above the lower chapel which serves asa parish church for the inhabitants of the palace. A souvenir shop can now be found in the lower church.

The interior of Sainte-Chapelle - Paris, France

Photographing the chapel was not easy due to the varying light conditions. It was almost impossible to capture an image where the stained glass and the interior were both exposed correctly. The first shot on this post was actually produced using two separate exposure of the same image. I ended up exposing the images based on exposure readings off the stained glass windows as the windows were main feature of the Chapel.

The interior of Sainte-Chapelle - Paris, France

All images on this post were captured with a Canon 7D and 24-105mm lens.

The interior of Sainte-Chapelle - Paris, France