Description

The Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie

The history of the site

In 1358, the future Charles V witnessed the assassination of his father's advisor, Jean II Le Bon. Once king, he chose to leave the Palais de la Cité to go to better protected places: first to the Hôtel Saint-Pol, then to the Louvre and Vincennes. The Palais de la Cité then remained the seat of the Parliament, the Chancellery, the Chamber of Accounts and the royal administration. Over the centuries, only the judicial function and the prison of the Conciergerie remained.

The Sainte-Chapelle, also known as the Sainte-Chapelle du Palais, is a palatine chapel built on the Île de la Cité 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. Of the Saintes Chapelles, it was the first to be built. It was designed as a vast, almost entirely glazed shrine, and is distinguished by the elegance and boldness of its architecture, which is evident 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 period of no more than seven years, no construction defects were noted, and the decoration was not neglected. It notably draws on sculpture, painting and the art of stained glass: it is its immense original stained glass windows which are the wealth 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. In 1797, it was transformed into an archive repository for the courthouse, and the expansion of the latter threatened its very existence. Its rescue was decided in 1836 under pressure from public opinion, and its restoration was launched a year later for a period of twenty-six years. As an emblematic building of the Rayonnant Gothic style, the Sainte-Chapelle was classified as a historic monument a year before the completion of its restoration, which was one of the most successful of its time.

The Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie are the only remains of the Palais de la Cité. This historic site welcomed more than a million visitors in 2013. Managed by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, it is the most visited site after Mont Saint-Michel and the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile.

The Pprogram of your visit

Free visit of the site composed of the two monuments