The Gothic

Gothic was born in the Île-de-France. Within a hundred years the cathedrals of Chartres, Paris, Reims and Amiens were built, higher and brighter with each generation.

Abbot Suger had a new choir built at Saint-Denis, consecrated in 1144, with pointed arches, rib vaults and large windows. Chartres received its stained glass in the early 13th century, and at Amiens the vaults reached about 42 metres.

Louis IX’s Sainte-Chapelle, consecrated in 1248, is almost entirely glass. Mont-Saint-Michel, the abbey on a rock in the sea, was added to over several hundred years.

• Basilica of Saint-Denis
• Chartres Cathedral
• Sainte-Chapelle
• Amiens Cathedral
• Notre-Dame de Paris
• Reims Cathedral
• Mont-Saint-Michel