Sainte-Chapelle

The Sainte -Chapelle is the former palace chapel of the former royal residence Palais de la Cité, on the Ile de la Cité in Paris ( 1 Arrdt. ).

It is one of the finest monuments of Gothic architecture and is an example of the high Gothic style of the middle of the 13th century.

History

The chapel was built 1244-1248 at the request of Louis IX. the Holy presumably built by Pierre de Montreuil to accommodate the precious Passion relics ( " Christ's Crown of Thorns " and parts of the " True Cross " ), as well as the tip of a lance, which should have belonged to the Roman centurion Longinus, the king in 1237 the Latin Emperor Baldwin II had bought. On April 26, 1248, the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated.

It is a two -story palace chapel with a low sub- band and a high upper chapel. This was place where the relics and remained closed to ordinary people. The largest part of its walls is occupied by precious stained glass windows, whereby the high space is flooded with an unearthly light acting.

Here you can also demonstrate that dissolve the tendency of the Gothic, the former stone room in a colored glass shrine and almost completely to transform the walls in multi-lane tracery windows, does not mean that the interior is much brighter. Instead, was the poignant effect of colored light, the glowing wall, the goal of the merging of earthly existence in a mystical color space.

The windows lancets are 12 meters high. The windows extend to 600 m², ⅔ of them date back to the 13th century, ⅓ are renewals of the 19th century.

But even this chapel was not spared accidents. 1630 burned out and was restored again. During the French Revolution the chapel was badly damaged for years clung to her a sign with the text " National Property for sale ". 1790 should even be demolished. That could be just prevented, and under the citizen-king Louis Philippe, the building was rehabilitated later. Allegedly original total still 720 out of the total 1134 window boxes. In some places, consoles are mounted in front of the pillars on which statues of the 12 apostles are placed where the original color has also been awarded again. It is the result of a thorough and daring for its time restoration in the 40s and 50s of the 19th century. Part of the life-size figures of the apostles on the walls, the altar canopy, about a third of the glass windows, the decorations on the inside of the west section, the roof turret, the figures of the entrance portals and the gallery in the entrance area were reconstructed. Nevertheless, the specificity of this space in terms of its color overall effect can not be clearly emphasized enough.

This restoration represents a turning point in public perceptions about medieval church interiors, because they were used until then rather simple white-painted rooms. Now it was confronted with completely different colors, and the public reaction was outraged accordingly. It was thought in many circles, it was all much too colorful, so it could not have been in the Middle Ages - and something like the public views are today, but they are wrong.

Others

Palace chapels of this type originated in the late Middle Ages to other residences of the French royal house and its secondary lines in the duchies. They are only also called Saintes- Chapelle's when they were equipped with Passion relics and a particular liturgy followed. These include the chapels in Vincennes, Riom, Châteaudun, Aigueperse, Champigny -sur- Veude and Vic -le- Comte. Gone are the Saintes- Chapels of Gué -de- Maulny, Vivier -en- Brie, Bourbon l'Archambault and Bourges. A similar chapel there in the castle of Saint- Germain -en- Laye ( Yvelines). The chapel at Versailles is considered as a Baroque variation of the Sainte -Chapelle. As Nachfolgebauten the Sainte -Chapelle outside France the Gothic palace chapels of Aachen and Prague are.

From the inventory of the Sainte -Chapelle also dates the Gospel Book of Sainte -Chapelle, one of the most important manuscripts of the Ottonian book illumination. The luxury manuscript made ​​by Gregor master came after the revolution in the Bibliothèque Nationale, their signature is Lat. 8851st

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