The best stained glass in Europe and the prison that held Marie-Antoinette, side by side on the Île de la Cité. Two hours for both.
The short version
- Book a timed slot for Sainte-Chapelle at sainte-chapelle.fr: €16 if you live in the EEA, €22 if you don’t, since January 12, 2026. Free under 18 and for EU residents 18 to 25.
- Buy the twin ticket with the Conciergerie on the same site, €23 or €30. The Conciergerie alone is €13, and the twin ticket is sold only on the Sainte-Chapelle site.
- Both are inside the Palais de Justice, so you pass an airport-style X-ray line at the gate on boulevard du Palais. Arrive at your slot time, not before, and bring nothing sharp.
- Sainte-Chapelle closes at 17:00 from October to March and 19:00 from April to September, last entry 30 minutes before. The Conciergerie is 9:30 to 18:00 all year.
- Go to Sainte-Chapelle when the sun is on the glass: late morning in winter, mid-afternoon in summer. The chapel is a box of glass and the light is the show.
- Ninety minutes for both, an hour if you only do the chapel. Metro Cité on line 4 is at the door.
Getting in
The line you see outside is the security check for the Palais de Justice, not the ticket line. It moves at X-ray speed, which on a summer afternoon can mean 30 minutes. A timed ticket gets you through to the chapel without a second wait; without one you buy at the desk inside, if there is capacity.
Free entry for under-18s and for EU residents aged 18 to 25 needs ID at the desk, and free visitors go through the same security. The first Sunday of the month is free for everyone in January, February, March, November and December. The Paris Museum Pass is accepted at both monuments.
- Sainte-Chapelle. 10 boulevard du Palais, through the Palais de Justice gate. €16 or €22. Timed slots.
- Conciergerie. 2 boulevard du Palais, next door on the river side. €13, no slot needed, HistoPad tablets until 16:15.
Or let a guide handle the island: our private Notre Dame and Latin Quarter tour is two hours from the Saint-Michel fountain with a licensed guide, Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie on the route from outside, and a pastry stop on the way.
The visit
Louis IX built Sainte-Chapelle in the 1240s to hold the Crown of Thorns, and it went up in about six years. The lower chapel was for the palace staff; the upper chapel, up a narrow spiral stair, was the king’s. Fifteen windows, 15 meters tall, carry the whole Bible in 1,113 scenes, and about two-thirds of the glass is the 13th-century original.
Stay in the upper chapel until the light moves. Read the windows from left to right starting at the back; the rose window at the west end is the Apocalypse. Thirty minutes is enough, forty if the sun is out.
The Conciergerie is the medieval palace the kings left for the Louvre, turned into a prison in the 1390s. The Salle des Gens d’Armes on the ground floor is the largest surviving Gothic hall in Europe. Upstairs is the Revolution: the cell reconstructed where Marie-Antoinette spent her last 76 days before the guillotine on October 16, 1793, and the list of the 2,780 people the Revolutionary Tribunal sent from here to their deaths.
Forty-five minutes at the Conciergerie with the HistoPad, which rebuilds the rooms on screen as they were. Without it, thirty.
When to go
Sainte-Chapelle on a bright day, with the sun on the south windows. That is late morning from October to March and mid-afternoon from April to September. On a grey day the glass is dark and the visit is half as good; swap the order and do the Conciergerie instead.
The first slot of the day has the shortest security line. Weekend afternoons in July and August are the long ones.
Both are closed January 1, May 1 and December 25. The Conciergerie closes early on some court days, posted on its site the week before; Sainte-Chapelle hosts evening concerts that don’t affect daytime hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a timed ticket for Sainte-Chapelle?
Get one. The chapel is small and the monument sells timed slots; without one you buy at the desk inside the security line only if there is room. Book the slot for the time the sun is on the glass.
Is the twin ticket worth it?
Yes if you want both. Sainte-Chapelle alone is €16 or €22 and the Conciergerie €13, so the €23 or €30 twin ticket saves €5 or €6 and you buy it once. It is only sold on the Sainte-Chapelle site.
How long is the security line?
Ten minutes early in the day, up to 30 on a summer afternoon. It is the Palais de Justice X-ray check, so no knives, scissors, glass bottles, helmets or big bags; confiscated items are not returned.
Can I see Sainte-Chapelle in the evening?
From April to September it is open until 19:00. The rest of the year it closes at 17:00. The evening concerts in the upper chapel are a separate ticket from the concert organizers, not from the monument.
Is there a tour that covers the Île de la Cité?
Yes. Our half-day Paris walking tour is about three hours with a private guide, start times from 9:00 to 18:00, and a Left Bank route crosses to the island for Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie. Book the chapel slot for the end of the walk.
Our Most Popular Day Trips From Paris
Half a day on foot with a private guide, routed around what you want to see.
Louvre, Montmartre and Notre Dame in eight hours with a private driver-guide.
Visit the historic abbey and environs. Marvel at this UNESCO World Heritage site.