Sainte-Chapelle (Section) Paris, France — completed 1248 Consecrated in 1248 after less than a decade of construction, Sainte-Chapelle stacks two chapels of identical plan but opposite proportions: a low-vaulted lower chapel rising to 6.60 metres and an upper chapel culminating at 20.50 metres. Commissioned by Louis IX to house the relics of the Passion, including the Crown of Thorns, the building relies on a continuous iron chaining system that frees its walls for fifteen great stained-glass windows. This longitudinal section captures that vertical contrast, from the massive substructure of the lower chapel to the single four-bay nave and seven-sided apse of the upper chapel.