Monday, August 20, 2007

Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle -- Paris


In the morning we went to Notre Dames. It was such an amazing Gothic cathedral with stunning stained glass rose windows.




One of the rose window

To help us understand the importance of the cathedral (and because it was free), we went on a tour of Notre Dame. It was really interesting to learn about Gothic architecture and the reason behind the three levels in the church and the use of light and height to assist in explaining the religious message further. I was so surprised to learn that Notre Dame was the keeper of the crown of thorns that was worn by Jesus in the Crucifixion. Not being a very religious person this whole tour was very eye opening to me and I really enjoyed learning more about the architecture .

After Notre Dame we walked over to Sainte Chapelle which was produced for Louis XI to hold his collection of holy relics including the crown of thorns. The first thing that you notice about Sainte Chapelle is that it is so light due to the huge stain glass windows. Most of the windows are the original from 1248. It was amazing.



The high ceilings and stain glass windows in Sainte Chapelle makes it feel better than it is.

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