Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/355

Rh southern a sacristry and treasury: the entrance to the lower chapel was on a level with the ground of the court-yard, while that to the upper was by a flight of steps, over which a French prince once galloped his horse, and on which is laid part of the scene of Boileau's Lutrin. The lower chapel comprises a central and two side aisles, with short massive pillars, and very strong vaulting, intended to support the floor of the upper chapel. Some curious horizontal stone springers, going from the side walls to the piers of the central aisle, form a distinctive feature of this part of the building. In the upper chapel there are no aisles; it forms one exceedingly lofty room, in which (as in King's College Chapel, Cambridge) the walls may be said to have disappeared, and to have left only vast panels of the most gorgeously coloured glass. Beneath the windows runs a series of niches all round the chapel, and the vaulting, quadripartite and plain, but very bold, rises domically over head. Every internal space not occupied by glass was originally covered either with gold, colour, or glass enamel ; and the effect was splendid in the extreme. The glass filling all the windows still remains almost as perfect as when it was put up in the time of its founder; and, next to that of Chartres, it is the most splendid in France. At the eastern end of the chapel stood a grand shrine, and the whole was profusely decorated with sculpture. The style of the edifice is the purest and the most beautifully finished early-pointed throughout, although the western wheel-window is of the Flamboyant period: all the details are most carefully executed, and the building (which is now restoring, together with the whole of the Palais, at the joint expense of the government and the city) is well worthy of careful professional study.

There are several parts of the Palais de Justice, such as the towers of the Conciergerie and other portions of the inner courts, which are nearly of the same date as the Sainte Chapelle, but they are not of great architectural value. This period may be considered rich in illustration at Paris, when we include in it the Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame, and the portions of the other churches mentioned in the last number as belonging to it. The great model for the style in this part of France is the abbey church of St. Denis. There are also several exquisite churches of the same date in various parts of the surrounding