La Sainte-Chapelle is a
Gothic chapel in
Paris,
France, built in
1246 by the very devout king
Louis IX of France as a chapel for the royal family and then as a shrine for what is said to be
Christ's crown of thorns, taken from
Constantinople (
Istanbul) during the
Crusades. The king was later granted sainthood by the
Roman Catholic Church as Saint Louis.
The most visually beautiful aspects of the ancient chapel, and considered the best of their type in the world, are its stained glass and rose windows added to the upper chapel in the 15th century.