Louis was a devout Catholic, and he built the Sainte-Chapelle (" Holy Chapel "), located within the royal palace complex ( now the Paris Hall of Justice ), on the Île de la Cité in the centre of Paris.

La Sainte-Chapelle (, The Holy Chapel ) is one of the only surviving buildings of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France ( the others being those of the Conciergerie ).

With the imperial throne at Constantinople occupied by a mere Count of Flanders and with the Holy Roman Empire in uneasy disarray, Louis ' artistic and architectural patronage helped to position him as the central monarch of western Christendom, the Sainte-Chapelle fitting in to a long tradition of prestigious palace chapels.

The Holy Sponge remained in Constantinople until it was bought from the Latin emperor at Constantinople, Baldwin II, for an exorbitant sum, by Louis IX of France, among the relics he needed for the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

The contemporary visitor entering the courtyard of the Royal Palace would have been met by the sight of a grand ceremonial staircase ( the Grands Degres ) to their right and the north flank and eastern apse of the Sainte-Chapelle to their left.

The Sainte-Chapelle, built in the French royal style, was erected to house the crown of thorns brought back from the crusades, and to serve as royal chapel.

Just as the Emperor could pass privately from his palace into the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, so now Louis could pass directly from his palace into the Sainte-Chapelle.

Begun some time after 1239 and consecrated on the 26th of April 1248, the Sainte-Chapelle is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture.

Louis IX added the Sainte-Chapelle and associated galleries, while Philippe IV created the towered facade on the river side and a large hall.

The king, fresh from his devotions in Sainte-Chapelle, would enter, accompanied by his chancellor, the princes of the blood, dukes and peers, cardinals and marshals, and take his place upon the cushions on a dais under a canopy of estate ( the lit ) in a corner of the chamber.

More of the wall surface than ever before was pierced by windows ( see for example the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris ) and buildings were often given lace-like tracery screens on the exterior to hide the bulk of load bearing wall elements and buttresses ( such as at Strasbourg Cathedral or the Church of St Urbain in Troyes ).

Although it was built on a much smaller scale, the chapel bears an obvious resemblance to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

According to figures from 2003, some popular tourist sites include ( in visitors per year ): Eiffel Tower ( 6. 2 million ), Louvre Museum ( 5. 7 million ), Palace of Versailles ( 2. 8 million ), Musée d ' Orsay ( 2. 1 million ), Arc de Triomphe ( 1. 2 million ), Centre Pompidou ( 1. 2 million ), Mont-Saint-Michel ( 1 million ), Château de Chambord ( 711, 000 ), Sainte-Chapelle ( 683, 000 ), Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg ( 549, 000 ), Puy de Dôme ( 500, 000 ), Musée Picasso ( 441, 000 ), Carcassonne ( 362, 000 ).

The chapel suffered its most grievous destruction in the late eighteenth century during the French Revolution, when the steeple and baldachin were removed, the relics dispersed ( although some survive as the " relics of Sainte-Chapelle " at Notre Dame de Paris ), and various reliquaries, including the grande châsse, were melted down.

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Another work of this period, Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, was commissioned as a commemoration of the dead of the two World Wars and was performed first semi-privately in the Sainte-Chapelle, then publicly in Chartres Cathedral with Charles de Gaulle in the audience.

* Louis IX's Sainte-Chapelle ( 1245 ), built as a reliquary to house the Crown of Thorns and a piece of the True Cross, enclosed within the mid 19th century Palais de Justice.

In the Château de Vincennes the relics of the Crown of Thorns were temporarily housed while the Sainte-Chapelle was being readied to receive them.

Other notable Gothic churches in France include Bourges Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Notre-Dame de Laon, Notre Dame in Paris, Reims Cathedral, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, Strasbourg Cathedral.

Shakka remarks that La Sainte-Chapelle is a bad meeting place because it's next to ( in real life too ), the Palais de Justice, a courthouse in Paris.

Prior to the dissolution of the Sainte-Chapelle in 1803, following the French Revolution, the term " la Sainte-Chapelle royale " also referred not only to the building but to the chapelle itself, the Sainte-Chapelle ( choir ).

He learned philosophy in the Jesuits ' college at Poitiers, and in 1699 went to Bourges to study civil law and mathematics under the charge of an uncle, canon of La Sainte-Chapelle.

The next day, he then flees to Paris where he meets his associate, Shakka Holland ( Persis Khambatta ) at La Sainte-Chapelle.

* Sainte-Chapelle ( choir ), the history of the musical establishment of the same name as the building, until 1803.

A fragment that remained behind received its own chapel at Vincennes, probably built by Peter of Montereau ( the probable designer of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris ), which survives ( illustration, below ).

It was then in the hands of the Venetians as security for a heavy loan ( 13, 134 gold pieces ), but it was redeemed and conveyed to Paris where St. Louis built the Sainte-Chapelle ( completed 1248 ) to receive it.

In 1536 he became a master of choristers at the Sainte-Chapelle ( choir ), and he remained at this post, with a few additional benefices, for the rest of his life.

Louis ' personal chapel, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, was copied more than once by his descendants elsewhere.

The Sainte-Chapelle was requisitioned as an archival depository in 1803.

* Saint-Germer-de-Fly Abbey: A very similar structure, also called the Sainte-Chapelle, was erected twelve years after the Paris chapel as an addition to the abbey church.

In 2001, when the surviving treasures from the Sainte-Chapelle were exhibited at the Louvre, the chaplet was solemnly presented every Friday at Notre Dame.

The campus grounds include a grotto and fountain, the House of Loretto, and an elegant main chapel that was inspired by Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

Born into a family of musicians, Boëly received his first music lessons from his father, Jean François, who was a countertenor at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and a composer and harp teacher at the court of Versailles.

The work was conceived by Pierre le Roy ( canon of Rouen and chaplain to the cardinal of Bourbon ) during discussions with friends (" français en politique et gallicans en religion " or " Frenchmen in politics and Gallicans in religion ") in Paris at the home of Jacques Gillot ( canon of the Sainte-Chapelle ).

* The Gothic chapel of Sainte-Chapelle is built.

Image: SteChapelle von N. JPG | The Sainte-Chapelle, built to house the Passion Relics.

Saint Louis also supported new forms of art such as Gothic architecture ; his Sainte-Chapelle became a very famous gothic building, and he is also credited for the Morgan Bible.

A statue of Louis IX stands in the lower chapel of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

* 1239: The Crown of Thorns is placed in the cathedral by St. Louis during the construction of the Sainte-Chapelle.

As well as serving as a place of worship, the Sainte-Chapelle played an important role in the political and cultural ambitions of King Louis and his successors.

* France: Sainte-Chapelle: A portion of the Crown of Thorns, brought to the site by Louis IX.

The appearance of the crown of thorns in art, notably upon the head of Christ in representations of the Crucifixion or the subject Ecce Homo arises after the time of St. Louis and the building of the Sainte-Chapelle.