My PhD thesis spans design, fabrication and characterization of chiral three-dimensional photonic crystals. This interesting subclass of photonic crystals might find attractive applications due to their polarization properties. For example, thin-film optical filters/polarizers as well as “poor man’s” optical isolators for circular polarization can be designed using chiral photonic crystals. Moreover active materials surrounded by chiral photonic crystals emit circularly – another perspective towards applications.