Sainte Chapelle

After the austerity of Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle is an explosion of color. True, the columns were painted in the 19th-century renovation, but two-thirds of the stained-glass windows are original, most of them from the 13th-century. The sun streaming through the brilliant red and blue windows is an unforgettable sight. Sainte-Chapelle consists of two chapels, one on top of the other. Palace servants user the chapelle basse (lower chapel); it is ornamented with fleur-de-lis-lis designs. The capelle haute (upper chapel) is one of the highest achievements of Gothic art. Here, Old and New Testament scenes are emblazoned in 15 perfect stained-glass windows covering 612 square meters. They should be read from bottom to top and from left to right. The 1,134 scenes trace the Biblical story from the Garden of Eden to the Apocalypse.