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France Travel
Built for St Louis IX to contain the Crown of Thorns which the sovereign had bought in 1239 in Venice, it was designed by Pierre de Montreuil, consisting of two chapels, one above the other, which were consecrated in 1248. Above its high base (which corresponds to the lower chapel), there are vast windows crowned with cusps. The steep sloping roof has a marble balustrade and a slender open work spire 246 feet high. Two more towers with spires stand on each side of the facade, in front of which is a porch; above the porch is a great rose window with cusp (late 15th century), with themes from the Apocalypse. Lower Church Barely 23 feet high, it has an enormous nave compared with the two much smaller aisles at the sides. Trefoil arch motifs supported by slender shafts recur around the walls. The apse at the end is polygonal. The dominating note of the chapel is its extremely rich polychrome decoration. Upper Church It is reached by means of an internal staircase. Without aisles, it is 55 feet wide and 67 feet high. A high, plinth runs all around the church, punctuated by open work marble arcades which from time to time open onto deep niches. Ir) the third bay are the two niches reserved for the king and his family. On each pier is a 114th century statue of an Apostle. All the architectural elements of the church are thus reduced to a minimum, so as to leave room for the fifteen huge stained glass windows nearly 50 feet high, which with their 1134 scenes cover a surface of some 6650 square feet. They date from the 1 3th century and depict, in vivid, glowing colours, scenes from the New and Old Testaments.
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