Cathédrale Notre-Dame
ChurchHidden Gem
Cathédrale Notre-Dame, located in Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.4478, 1.4880
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00096993
An absolute jewel of classical Gothic architecture, the cathédrale de Chartres has defied the centuries through its 176 intact medieval stained-glass windows and its asymmetrical silhouette — unique among the great cathedrals of France.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
Rising from the plain of the Beauce like a vision conjured from the Middle Ages, the cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres is one of the most admired and best-preserved monuments in Western Europe. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, it asserts itself not merely as a masterpiece of Gothic architecture, but as a kind of visual and spiritual summa of an entire civilisation. Its two mismatched spires — one Romanesque and squat, the other soaring and flamboyant — lend its silhouette an immediately recognisable character, a twin signature visible from miles around across the flat expanse of the Beauce. What makes Chartres so radically unique amongst Gothic cathedrals is the extraordinary coherence of its interior decoration. Unlike Reims or Paris, Notre-Dame de Chartres was spared the great waves of Revolutionary destruction and the overzealous restorations of the nineteenth century. Its 176 stained-glass windows, a great number of which date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, constitute the finest and most complete ensemble of medieval stained glass in the world. The celebrated bleu de Chartres — that ultramarine of mysterious intensity which the craftsmen of the age could not have known they were rendering inimitable — bathes the interior in a quality of coloured light that has no equal. The experience of visiting Chartres is at once sensory and intellectual. To pass through the portail royal, with its sculpted tympana and column-figures bearing faces of arresting serenity, is to enter a space designed to transcend the everyday. The nave, soaring to thirty-seven metres, draws the eye irresistibly upward, whilst the paving at the crossing bears one of the oldest cathedral labyrinths in the Western world — a symbolic pilgrim's path traced in limestone and blue stone. The chevet, the radiating chapels and the crypt — one of the largest in France, and a remnant of the Romanesque edifice of the eleventh century — offer so many spaces to explore, each bearing the successive layers of a thousand years of history. The tour nord and tour sud, accessible to the most intrepid of visitors, command a sweeping view over the rooftops of the town and the boundless plain of the Beauce stretching away beneath.
Architecture
The cathedral of Chartres is the archetype of the French classical Gothic style, raised in a remarkable unity of style between 1194 and 1220. Its Latin cross plan comprises a five-aisled nave, a projecting transept, and a chevet with an ambulatory encircled by radiating chapels. The central nave soars to 36.55 metres beneath the vault, borne aloft by a system of double-flight flying buttresses that represent one of the building's foremost technical innovations and made possible a considerable enlargement of the glazed surfaces. The total length of the edifice reaches approximately 130 metres. The western façade unites its two towers with the celebrated Portail Royal, an exceptionally well-preserved ensemble of Romanesque sculpture dating from 1145 to 1155. The column-figures of the embrasures, their faces elongated and hieratic, stand as one of the supreme achievements of twelfth-century sculpture. The southern tower, known as the "vieux clocher", rises to 105 metres in its Romanesque austerity, whilst the northern tower, crowned by the Flamboyant spire of Jehan de Beauce, reaches 115 metres. The three transeptal portals to the north and south, added in the thirteenth century, unfold an iconographic programme of unrivalled theological richness. The interior reveals Chartres' other wonder: its 176 stained-glass windows covering a surface of 2,600 square metres, among them the three lancet windows of the western façade dating from the twelfth century — the oldest, known as "Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrière", is an absolute jewel. Upon the floor of the nave, the medieval labyrinth, thirteen metres in diameter, is one of the very few intact cathedral labyrinths remaining in France. The principal building material is the hard limestone of Berchères, quarried some ten kilometres from the city, and prized for both its solidity and its pale, luminous colour.
Related Figures
Fulbert de Chartres — évêque bâtisseur de la cathédrale romane après l'incendie de 1020Charles le Chauve — roi carolingien qui offrit la Sancta Camisia vers 876, fondant le prestige marial de ChartresBlanche de Castille — reine de France et régente, mécène du portail nord au XIIIe siècleLouis IX (Saint Louis) — roi de France, pèlerin à Chartres et soutien de la fabrique cathédraleJehan de Beauce — architecte de la flèche nord flamboyante, achevée vers 1513Émile Mâle — historien de l'art qui consacra des études fondamentales à l'iconographie de Chartres au XXe siècleViollet-le-Duc — architecte qui supervisa plusieurs travaux de restauration au XIXe siècle sans toutefois altérer profondément l'édifice
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Cathédrale Notre-Dame located?
Cathédrale Notre-Dame is located in Chartres, Eure-et-Loir department, Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
When was Cathédrale Notre-Dame built?
Cathédrale Notre-Dame dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Cathédrale Notre-Dame open to visitors?
Cathédrale Notre-Dame is currently closed to visitors.