The term “Sainte-Chappelle”, French for “holy chapel”, is most often used to refer to one of the most famous Gothic churches in the world, the chapel on the Île de la Cité in Paris which St Louis IX built to house the Lord’s Crown of Thorns. But there are nine other chapels of royal or noble foundation which are also so called, and there were four others which no longer exist. Of these, the best known is the Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes, the chapel of a castle complex called the Château de Vincennes on the outskirts of Paris, which was often used as the royal residence from the time it was built the 1360s, until it was effectively replaced by Versailles in the late 17th century.
Construction of the chapel was begun in 1379, ten years after the castle was finished, but not completed until 1552. With the permanent move to Versailles under Louis XIV in 1682, it lost its importance; the castle itself ceased to be an official royal residence in 1754, and the collegiate chapter that officiated in the chapel was suppressed in 1787. The chapel was badly damaged during the Revolution, later to be restored by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (better known for his important word on Notre-Dame de Paris), but many of its decorations, including the spire, the tympanum, almost all the exterior sculptures, many of the stained glass windows, and all of the original furnishings (e.g. the choir stalls) were irreparably lost. Despite this, it remains an impressive example of the style of later phase of Gothic architecture known as the flamboyant. These pictures were taken by Nicola during a recent visit.
The small tower-like structure on the left of the church is the sacristy; the upper story was a treasury to house other relics of the Lord’s Passion. (I have been unable to find a source which says which ones exactly.)
An especially good shot from a window within the castle.
The view from the choir loft.
Looking back at the choir loft from the nave.
The lower part of the central section of the stained glass in the apse (a 19th-century reconstruction). At the bottom, King Henry II (r. 1547-59), who saw the chapel to completion, kneels in prayer; above him are the avenging angels of the Apocalypse.
The tomb of Louis-Antoine Boubon de Condé, duke of Enghien (1772-1804). In 1804, he was arrested on false charges of conspiracy against the war criminal Napoleon, tried and executed at the castle, a judicial murder which caused a huge shock in Europe.
Various views of the castle
The donjon, i.e. the central fortified tower. These structures were originally primarily defensive, but often used as prisons as well, when the English word “dungeon.”
A statue of St Louis IX in the courtyard.
