The Jewel-box of the Cité - La Sainte-Chapelle

       We discussed the little chapel called "La Sainte Chapelle" in terms of its history and symbolism. The building was conceived by Louis IX in 1244 and was built in the relatively short period of 4 years. Louis imagined the structure as a kind of gigantic reliquary for the most precious religious relics in all Christendom - the "true cross" of Christ, the "Crown of Thorns" and other relics connected to the actual passion of Christ. (The "passion" refers to the period of Christ's trial, persecution and crucifixion). It was built within the courtyard of the royal palace of the cité. For this reason, it was not intended to be a public building, nor did Louis intend to allow pilgrims to visit it on a daily basis, as they did at St. Denis and Notre Dame.

       In the lecture, I recounted the story of Louis' close brush with death and his vow to undertake a crusade, which by the middle of the 13th century had become an out-moded activity. Thanks to the enormous resolve and cunning of his mother Blanche of Castille, Louis presided over a royal domain that was wider, more secure and more prosperous than ever before. France was now the leading monarchy of Europe and Louis wanted to forge an alliance with the church that would ensure the continuation of peace and prosperity for centuries to come. Blanche herself had been used to power during the childhood of Louis. She knew well that his decision concerning the crusade would determine the rest of his life.

       In the 1240's, Louis was facing huge perils - the threat of war with England, betrayal by the German Emperor Frederick II, as well as various forms of heresy that were spreading rampantly in the southern kingdom. Blanche convinced him to renounce his vow on one occasion, but he changed his mind back and demanded that she return his cross. The last moderately successful crusdade had been in 1099, when Jerusalem was conquered -but the problem was that the crusaders never bothered to establish a colony to secure the holy land each time it was conquered. Just a few months before Louis' vow, the holy land was re-taken again by the Turks. In hindsight, we can see that Louis' vow was significant not because of it's hope of success, but because of the spirit of religious zeal it showed. Louis envisioned the new state of France as a new kingdom of David and Solomon. He genuinely believed himself to be a kind of Moses who would lead all Christendom to the promised land. Well, he didn't exactly accomplish that, but his architect Pierre de Montreuil managed to create an extraordinary building to house the newly found relics. Thus we may see that the Sainte Chapelle was built for a triple purpose: as a reliquary for these objects, as a royal chapel of Louis, and as a symbolic statement of his ideology of crusade. There is an implicit argument within the Sainte Chapelle that people of France had become the rightful successors to the jews as God's chosen people.

       A little more detail about these relics. The sacred relics that Louis sought had a rich and complex history. I described in class the legend of the "true cross", that magical piece of lumber that had a rich (though legendary) history before and after the crucifixion. It was believed that a tree had grown at the head of Adam's grave and that the same tree was chopped down and used by King Solomon in his temple. The Queen of Sheba is believed to have recognized the holyness of this particular beam while visiting Solomon and prophesied at that time that the wood would (no pun intended) be used by a greater king than Solomon - she fortold that the Messiah would suffer by it. After the crucifixion of Christ, the cross was lost and then found by the Emperor Constantine's mother Helena, who restored it to Jerusalem at the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Following this, it was stolen and passed around for several hundred years before being rescued by the 9th century Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. (Byzantium was the name for the Eastern European Christian Empire, based in the city which is now called Istanbul in present day Turkey) Heraclius, who briefly lost the relic to the Persians, regained it by doing hand-to-hand combat with the Persian king. He then went to Jerusalem to restore the relic to its rightful place and (so the story goes) upon entering Jerusalem, he was confronted by an angel who threw boulders in his way. The angel said: "When the king of Heaven passed through this gate to suffer death, there was no royal pomp!" Heraclius reportedly stripped down to his shirt and walked barefoot to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to restore the relic. When Louis acquired the relics of the true cross and crown of thorns, he brought them to Paris in a magnificent royal procession and then carried them through the gates of the city barefoot, just like Heraclius had done. All these stories are related in the glass of La Sainte Chapelle.

       The architecture of the chapel itself is based on previous palace chapels, most importantly the one that Charlemagne built at Aix-la-Chapelle around the year 800. As with that famous chapel, the Saint Chapelle was designed with a two-storey elevation. The lower level is called the crypt, and is where the relics were housed. After entering the crypt, the visitor has to turn to the left or right and proceed up a narrow spiral staircase to the upper level, which is several times the height of the crypt. This is where all the stained glass is located. I have included views of the facade, the south elevation, the main entrance, and the view from outside the cité place courtyard.

        As I detailed on the class handout, the windows follow a pattern that goes around the chapel from the northwest corner eastward around the apse and then westward to the southeast corner. The north windows depict scenes from the Old Testament, particularly those associated with kings. Around the apse, the windows show moments from the passion of Christ, as well as the tree of Jesse (the geneaology of Christ from King David's father Jesse down to Mary's father Joachim). The south windows show New Testament scenes, culminating in most westerly of the south windows, which depicts the history of the passion relics. I've created a clickable version of the groundplan handout to show you where the specific windows are.