7 of the Best Historic Sites in France - Page 5 of 9

Sainte Chapelle

Sainte Chapelle, or the “Holy Chapel”, is a gothic church built by Saint Louis in Ile de la Cité in the centre of Paris. The construction of Sainte Chapelle began in 1246 under the orders of King Louis IX, and was carried out with the specific purpose of housing the relics of the Passion of Christ, including the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the true cross. Even by the time Sainte Chapelle was consecrated in 1248 at a cost of 40,000 livres, the cost paled in comparison to the 135,000 livres which the relics cost when bought from the Byzantine emperor Baldwin II.