Cathedral glass is monochromatic sheet glass, which may be textured on one side. Traditional cathedral stained glass was created with a mixture of natural dyes, minerals, lime, and urine, which was then baked on to the interior side of the glass as a sort of glaze to provide color. Modern-day stained glass has the dyes melted and mixed in to the glass itself, rather than simply being applied as an inside coating. Cathedral glass, or stained glass was traditionally used to decorate the interior of churches by filtering the light in to different colors. The upper chapel in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, France is perhaps the most famous and elaborate of all cathedral glass works. Something which is monochromatic has a single color. ... The physics definition of a glass is a uniform amorphous solid material, usually produced when a suitably viscous molten material cools very rapidly, thereby not giving enough time for a regular crystal lattice to form. ... Strictly speaking, stained glass is glass that has been painted with silver stain and then fired. ... A dye can generally be described as a coloured substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. ... Minerals are natural compounds formed through geological processes. ... Lime has several meanings: Limestone Agricultural lime - a mineral soil additive Calcium oxide (also quicklime) - a chemical compound Calcium hydroxide (also slaked lime) - a chemical compound Lime (fruit) - a Citrus tree with a green fruit similar to a lemon, and the fruit of that tree. ... Urine is liquid waste excreted by the kidneys and eventually expelled from the body in a process known as urination. ... Painting technique Glaze is a term for painting with a transparent medium. ... A cathedral is a Christian church building, specifically of a denomination with an episcopal hierarchy (such as the Roman Catholic Church or the Anglican churches), which serves as the central church of a bishopric. ... A church building is a building used in Christian worship. ... La Sainte-Chapelle (French for The Holy Chapel) is a Gothic chapel on the Ile de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

Stained glass would not have gained notoriety if not for the advent of gothic style architechture, which transmits the vertical load of the building to pilliars outside the walls, known as flying buttresses, allowing for the traditionally thick walls to be opened up greatly, thus allowing many times more area of the wall to be devoted to cathedral glass and the stories that could be told with the images created by it. Gothic architecture characterizes any of the styles of European architecture, particularly associated with cathedrals and other churches, in use throughout Europe during the high and late medieval period, from the 12th century onwards. ... Flying buttress, in architecture, is the term given to a structural feature employed to transmit the thrust of a vault across an intervening space, such as an aisle, chapel or cloister, to a buttress built outside the latter. ...