Chartres Cathedral
After a fire in 1194 the cathedral was rebuilt in roughly thirty years, which has made it unusually unified. It has one of the world’s largest collections of medieval stained glass, with its distinctive “Chartres blue”. The two west towers differ: one is Romanesque and plain, the other late medieval and pointed.
Chartres was one of France’s most important pilgrimage sites, because since the 9th century the cathedral had owned a relic believed to be the tunic of the Virgin Mary. When the Romanesque cathedral burned in 1194, the relic survived in the crypt, which was taken as a sign that Mary wanted a new and even larger church. The bishop, the cathedral chapter, the nobility and the townspeople all contributed to the building, and several craft guilds donated windows depicting their own trades. The cathedral was built of limestone from a nearby quarry. The main body was complete by around 1220, and the final consecration took place in 1260. The west front with the Portail royal, the towers and the crypt survived the fire and were incorporated into the new church. The master builders are unknown.
Chartres is regarded as the first High Gothic cathedral. The nave wall has three storeys: arcades, a low triforium and a tall clerestory in which each bay has two lancet windows and a small rose window. This was made possible by flying buttresses that were part of the structure from the outset. The vaults are four-part rib vaults, a simpler solution than the earlier six-part vaults. The Portail royal of around 1150 has elongated statues of biblical kings and queens that grow out of the columns. The transept portals are filled with hundreds of sculptures. Set into the nave floor is a labyrinth that pilgrims could walk along. Stained glass fills almost every window, and one of the oldest is Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrière.
The cathedral came through the Wars of Religion and the Revolution remarkably well. The north tower received its pointed late medieval spire in the early 16th century. In 1836 the timber roof structure burned, and it was replaced by an iron structure covered with copper, which has given the roof its green colour. During both world wars the stained glass was taken down and hidden to protect it from bombing. Since the 2000s an extensive restoration has cleaned the windows and painted the interior in light tones, which has been controversial because it has altered the dark character of the church interior. Chartres became a World Heritage Site in 1979. With its unified building, its sculpture and its glass, it became the benchmark for French High Gothic and for the cathedrals built at Reims, Amiens and further afield in Europe.