The relatively small Sainte-Chapelle is one of the most beautiful churches that I have ever seen! It is a jewel of Gothic church architecture and was build from 1242 - 1248 for King Louis IX to house some of the holiest relics of Christendom: the Crown of Thorns and a piece of the Holy Cross which Louis IX thought to have bought for the stately sum of the equivalent of roughly €500 million from the Emporer Badouin II of Constantinople. Sainte-Chapelle is showcasing fifteen separate windows of stained glass, featuring 1100 different scenes mostly from the Bible, from the Genesis to the Apocalypse. Two thirds of them are 13th century originals. Everything that isn’t glass in this chapel is elaborately carved and painted in gold leaf and rich colors: vaulting arches, delicate window cases, wainscoting of arches and medallions, all of exceptional craftsmanship. You enter the chapel through a small spiral staircase and when I saw the interior for the first time I couldn’t help but feeling completely overwhelmed by the beauty of it. My husband and I visited on an overcast day, but were incredibly lucky that the late afternoon sun came out while we were in the chapel. This intensified the colors of the stained glass in the whole church, but it turned the stained glass of the one window it shone directly through into bright gemstones. It was magical! Certainly a one of a lifetime moment for me! My photo does not do this chapel justice, but my husband recorded two short panorama videos of the stained glass windows, which I will publish later in my stories. I would really invite you to watch them so that you can experience the magic of Sainte-Chapelle as well! #saintechapelle #paris #iledelacite #stainedglass #stainedglasswindow #stainedglasswindows #organicgardendreams #magical #overwhelming #painted #goldleaf #chapelle #church #gothic #gothicarchitecture #louisix #1248 #chapel (at Sainte-Chapelle de Paris)