The Sainte-Chapelle was built by Saint Louis, king Louis IX, in the mid-13th century, at the heart of the Palais de la Cité, the sovereign’s residence and the seat of his government. Both palatine and reliquary, the Sainte-Chapelle is composed of the lower chapel, intended for the palace personnel, and the upper or royal chapel where the relics connected to Christ’s Passion were kept, bought by Saint Louis from the emperor of Constantinople. The Sainte-Chapelle is decorated by a unique ensemble of fifteen stained glass windows and a large rose window which form true walls of light. In the mid-19th century, the Sainte-Chapelle was restored in a manner which both re-created the original flamboyant Gothic and created an ideal vision of sacred medieval architecture.