sybarites

The crusades may not have captured the holy lands, but holy knights returned with hordes of relics. John Calvin famously remarked that there were enough pieces of the True Cross to build a ship from. Of course, cathedrals must be built at great expense to house such relics because you don’t put the Crown of Thorns in a shoe box in the back of your closet.

From 1246 to 1251, Sainte Chapelle was built to house the Crown of Thorns, two pieces from the True Cross, and the Roman lance that pierced the side of Christ. The relics may be litter off the battlefield, but the church is priceless. It made me wonder why Notre Dame was built when there was such a center of awe just down the road.

We first entered the lower chapel for the servants of the palace. The warm light and walls beautifully contrasted with the velvety blue ceiling, spotted with gold fleur-de-lis.

A small spiral staircase opens to the airy upper chapel. The thin columns and stained glass made me wonder how the roof was supported. The walls were almost entirely glass. The atmosphere in the chapel changed as the clouds passed over head. I spent a lot of time looking up the ceiling covered with stars.

Apparently there were still boxes of these relics laying around in the 20th Century. Sacre Coeur, when it was completed in 1919, finally provided a home for a piece of Jesus’ heart.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 10th, 2006 at 7:52 am by Marc and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.