Chartres Cathedral

Chartres has been a great sanctuary of Our Lady since the ninth century, when the Emperor Charles the Bald gave it a relic venerated as the Virgin’s veil, the Sancta Camisia. After a fire in 1194 destroyed most of the old cathedral, the relic was found unharmed. The people took this as a sign that Mary wanted a new and more beautiful church, and they rebuilt it in less than thirty years.

The result is one of the purest and best-preserved Gothic cathedrals in the world. Of its original stained-glass windows, about 150 survive, more than in any other medieval church. They are famous for the deep “Chartres blue,” which fills the nave with coloured light. Its sculpted portals hold thousands of figures, and its two unmatched spires rise over the wheat fields of the Beauce.

Set in the nave floor is a thirteenth-century labyrinth that pilgrims walk in prayer. Every year thousands of young people walk the three-day pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres, as the poet Charles Péguy did. The cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Built

1194–1220 (consecrated 1260)

Style

High Gothic

Where

Chartres, France

Map

Find it on OpenStreetMap