Chartres Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres)

Chartres Cathedral is one of the supreme achievements of Gothic architecture and, with its largely intact medieval stained glass, one of the best places in the world to see how a cathedral looked in the thirteenth century. UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage list in 1979. The cathedral rises above the town, and its two towers can be seen from many kilometres across the flat wheat fields of the Beauce. For pilgrims it has been a destination since the early Middle Ages, because it holds a relic, the Sancta Camisa, said to be the veil worn by the Virgin Mary at the birth of Christ.

The site had held earlier churches, and the building was shaped by a series of fires. The Romanesque church was damaged by a fire in 1020 and rebuilt by Bishop Fulbert, and another great fire in 1194 destroyed most of it. The crypt and the west facade survived, and the townspeople and pilgrims rebuilt the rest in under thirty years, a remarkable speed that explains the unity of style in the nave and choir. The result is a model of High Gothic design, with tall arches, flying buttresses and a great interior height.

The west front has the Royal Portal, carved in the mid-twelfth century, which is among the finest examples of early Gothic sculpture, with slender figures of kings and queens and scenes from the life of Christ. Above it, three lancet windows survive from the same period. Inside, the stained glass fills the building with a deep blue light, and more than a hundred and fifty medieval windows survive, among them the Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrière in the choir. The windows tell stories of the Bible and the saints, and binoculars help to read the panels. On the floor of the nave is a labyrinth, laid out around 1200, which pilgrims once followed as a symbolic journey. Its use depends on the day, since chairs are often set over it.

The two towers are different. The south tower, the Clocher Vieux, is a Romanesque spire of about 105 metres, while the north tower, the Clocher Neuf, was rebuilt in the early sixteenth century in the Flamboyant style and reaches about 113 metres. In the evenings of the summer the Chartres en lumières festival lights up the cathedral and other buildings of the town.

The cathedral is open daily, and entry is free, with guided tours of the crypt arranged separately. Allow one to three hours. It suits lovers of medieval art, pilgrims and anyone visiting the Centre-Val de Loire. The old town, the Place du Martroi, the Eure riverbanks and the Musée des Beaux-Arts are all close at hand.