The glass, window by window
Sainte-Chapelle stained glass windows explained
Fifteen windows, read in order from the north wall round to the south — what each one shows and how much of the original thirteenth-century glass survives.
Check tour dates on Viator ↗Reading the chapel in order
The cycle starts at the western bay of the north wall with Genesis and runs clockwise through Exodus, Joseph, Numbers and Leviticus, Joshua and Deuteronomy, and Judges on the way to the apse.
The south wall and the relics window
Back on the south wall, the sequence continues with Jeremiah and Tobias, Judith and Job, Esther, and David and the Book of Kings, finishing in the westernmost bay with the relics window: the rediscovery of Christ's relics, their miracles, and their arrival in Paris in the hands of Louis IX himself.
The apse
The three central windows at the east end carry the New Testament: the Infancy of Christ on the left, the Passion in the middle, and the life of John the Evangelist on the right. Further apse windows carry prophets, Ezekiel and Daniel among them.
The rose window
Made in the late fifteenth century, more than two centuries after the rest of the glass, in the Flamboyant Gothic style: nine metres across, with 89 panels depicting the Apocalypse. It was thoroughly cleaned in 2014–15.
How much is original
Nearly two-thirds of the glass standing today is thirteenth-century work. Some original glass was moved into other windows over the centuries, and the remainder dates from the nineteenth-century restoration, which followed the surviving drawings and descriptions closely.