Abbot Suger (1081-1151) was the first to bring coloured stained glass windows into a religious building. Suger spent a lot of money on the fourteen stained glass windows in the choir chapels – some say more than on the stone construction. The subjects evoked by the windows were complex, especially for scholarly monks. Of the 12th-century windows, only five remain today, along with some dismantled elements. The high windows of the choir (photo) date from 1845. They depict the life of Saint Denis and episodes from the history of the basilica over the centuries.