Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye

About this place

The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a former royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the department of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris, France. Today, it houses the Musée d'Archéologie nationale. The first castle, named the Grand Châtelet, was built on the site by Louis VI in 1124. The castle was expanded by Louis IX in the 1230s. The Saint Louis chapel at the castle belongs to the Rayonnant phase of French Gothic architecture. A 1238 charter of Louis IX instituting a regular religious service at the chapel is the first mention of a chapel having been built at the royal castle. Compare the overall outline with the spaces intended for residence and ceremony. The contrast helps reveal how architecture expressed the ambitions of its patrons and how inherited forms could be adapted to new expectations of comfort and display.