Who made the universe? How did life begin, and what is its purpose? What happens to us after we die? For answers to those and other fundamental questions, people throughout history have turned to a world we cannot see except through faith, the sacred realm of the spirit. Gods and goddesses, spirits of ancestors, spirits of nature, one God and one alone—each society has formed its own view of the sacred realm and how it interacts with our own. Some forms of faith have disappeared into history, others have remained small and local, while still others such as Christianity and Islam have become major religions that draw believers from all over the world. From earliest times, art has played an important role in our relationship to the sacred, helping us to envision it, to honor it, and to communicate with it.
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Many works of architecture have been created to provide settings for rituals of worship and prayer, rituals that formalize contact between the earthly and the divine realms. One such work is the small marvel known as the Sainte-Chapelle, or holy chapel (3.1). Located in Paris, the chapel was commissioned in 1239 by the French king Louis IX to house an important collection of relics that he had just acquired, relics he believed to include pieces of the True Cross, the Crown of Thorns, and other instruments of Christ's Passion. The king's architects created a soaring vertical space whose walls seem to be made of stained glass. Light passing through the glass creates a dazzling effect, transforming the interior into a radiant, otherworldly space in which the glory of heaven seems close at hand.