Visit restored Sainte-Chapelle

SPECIAL free night-time visits of the Sainte-Chapelle on Paris’s Ile-de-a-Cité are being organised tonight and tomorrow (Saturday) to mark the end of seven years of restoration work.

The visits, from 18.00 to 21.30, are a chance to see the full splendour of the stained glass windows for which the 13th century building is famous.

The chapel was built originally on the orders of King Louis IX (“Saint Louis”), to house relics including the alleged crown of thorns of Jesus and other items like the supposed lance which a soldier used to pierce his side and a sponge supposedly used to give him a drink. They cost him 135 000 livres, plus 100 000 for an elaborate silver chest to house them – the rest of the chapel cost 40 000.

Some of the relics went missing in the Revolution, but the remainder are now kept at the treasury of Notre-Dame de Paris, where they are guarded by the order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.

Photo: Gnosne