La Sainte Chapel – House of Christian Relics in France

La Sainte Chapel - House of Christian Relics in France

It is said that the Crown of Thorns, and some other relics almost as important, came to Paris in the August of 1239, in the hands of two Dominica Friars, to whom they had been pawned. The King, Louise IX, bought these relics at the huge price they asked – 135,000 livres. It had been under the protection of the Latin Emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople. The Sainte-Chapel was built on the Île de la Cité, in the courtyard of the palace. On the 26th April 1248, the building, which had stonework covered by paintings and sculptures of saints and of martyrs, and which by then had a number of the most coveted religious relics in the world, was consecrated.

With this, Louise IX, who could later be canonized, became one of the most powerful men in the world, with the very heart of Western Christendom in his courtyard itself. Rome was no longer the ultimate symbol of power it had been, the throne of Constantinople, which was under the Count of Flanders, was no longer imperial. And so, the Sainte-Chapel became a symbol of power, one of sheer and commanding beauty.