Chartres Cathedral: Stained Glass and High Gothic Design

Chartres Cathedral, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in the town of Chartres south-west of Paris, was largely rebuilt after a fire in June 1194 and is one of the finest Gothic churches in Europe. Raised in only a few decades, it became the model for High Gothic architecture and preserves one of the most complete collections of medieval stained glass anywhere. Its labyrinth, sculpture and a famous relic of the Virgin Mary drew pilgrims for centuries and still attract visitors from around the world.

Background: a shrine of the Virgin

A church has stood on the site since at least the early Middle Ages. Its fame rested on the Sancta Camisia, a cloth venerated as the tunic of the Virgin Mary, which tradition says was given by the Carolingian king Charles the Bald in 876. Chartres became one of the leading Marian pilgrimage centres of France, and its fairs brought trade to the town.

After a fire in 1020, Bishop Fulbert rebuilt the cathedral in Romanesque style over a vast crypt that still survives. Chartres was also home to an important cathedral school in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

In the mid-twelfth century, inspired by the new style pioneered by Abbot Suger at Saint-Denis, the canons added a new west front with two towers and the sculpted Royal Portal, built around 1145–1155.

The fire of 1194 and the rebuilding

On the night of 10–11 June 1194 a fire destroyed most of Fulbert’s cathedral and much of the town. Only the crypt, the west towers and the Royal Portal with its windows survived. When the Sancta Camisia was found unharmed in the crypt, carried there for safety by clergy, the papal legate Cardinal Melior of Pisa and Bishop Renaud de Mouçon presented it as a sign that the Virgin wanted a grander church.

Money poured in from the bishop and canons, who gave part of their revenues for several years, from the French nobility and from ordinary pilgrims. Work moved remarkably fast. The nave seems to have been complete by about 1220, and the choir was in use by around 1221. The transepts and their portals followed in the following decades. The cathedral was formally consecrated on 24 October 1260 in the presence of King Louis IX.

High Gothic design

The new Chartres combined several innovations into a coherent system. Its walls rise in three storeys: a main arcade, a narrow passage called the triforium, and large clerestory windows. Earlier Gothic churches, including the early work at Notre-Dame de Paris, usually had four storeys with a gallery; dropping the gallery allowed taller windows.

Flying buttresses, external stone arches, carry the thrust of the stone vaults outward and down to the ground, so the walls between them can be largely glass. The vaults reach about 37 metres above the floor. The plan, with a long nave, broad transepts and a choir surrounded by a double aisle and radiating chapels, influenced later cathedrals such as Reims and Amiens.

The sculpture is equally important. The Royal Portal, saved from the fire, is famous for its tall, slender column figures of kings and queens from the Old Testament. The north and south transept portals, carved in the early thirteenth century, add hundreds more figures of prophets, apostles, saints and scenes from the Last Judgement.

The stained glass

Chartres preserves most of its original glazing, more than 150 windows covering roughly 2,500–2,600 square metres. The majority were made between about 1205 and 1240, making it the largest surviving ensemble of glass from that period.

The three lancet windows of the west front date from around 1150 and survived the fire. So did the Belle Verrière, a celebrated image of the Virgin and Child of about 1180, later set into a thirteenth-century window frame. The glowing “Chartres blue” of these windows is widely admired.

The windows tell stories from the Bible and the lives of saints in small panels meant to be read from bottom to top. Many include images of their donors, from royalty and nobles to guilds such as bakers, butchers, shoemakers and wine merchants, showing how the whole community took part. The great north rose, devoted to the Virgin, carries the arms of France and Castile and is associated with Queen Blanche of Castile, mother of Louis IX, in the 1230s.

Key people

• Fulbert of Chartres (c. 960–1028): bishop and scholar who rebuilt the cathedral after 1020 and whose crypt still supports the present church.
• Bishop Renaud de Mouçon (bishop 1182–1217): led the diocese during the fire and the rebuilding, and pledged church revenues to the work.
• Blanche of Castile (1188–1252): queen of France and regent, associated with the north rose window and its royal heraldry.
• Louis IX (1214–1270): king of France, present at the consecration in 1260.
• Jehan de Beauce (died 1529): master mason who built the Flamboyant north spire and the choir screen around the choir.

The architect of the 1194 rebuilding is not known by name. Like most master masons of the period he left no signature, and historians identify his hand only through the building itself.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Chartres took centuries to build. Fact: The main structure rose in roughly 25 to 30 years after 1194, unusually fast for a cathedral of its size, which explains its unity of style.
• Myth: The labyrinth was used by Templars or for secret rituals. Fact: No medieval evidence supports this; its use was almost certainly devotional.
• Myth: The cathedral’s interior was always dark grey stone. Fact: Medieval interiors were often painted; traces of a pale wash with painted joint lines guided the recent restoration.

The labyrinth

Set into the floor of the nave is a circular labyrinth, made in the early thirteenth century. It measures about 13 metres across, and its single path of about 260 metres winds in eleven circuits to a central rosette. Unlike a puzzle maze, it has no dead ends.

Its original purpose is not recorded. Many scholars think it was walked as a devotion or as a symbolic journey to Jerusalem, and it is often called a pilgrimage path. A metal plaque once at the centre was removed and melted down during the French Revolution. For most of the year the labyrinth is covered with chairs, but it is cleared on certain days for visitors to walk.

Later history

The north tower received a soaring Flamboyant Gothic spire by Jehan de Beauce between 1507 and 1513, which explains why the two west towers do not match. The building escaped serious damage in the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution, and the medieval glass was removed for safety during both World Wars.

Chartres was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. A major restoration from 2009 onward cleaned the stonework and repainted parts of the interior in light colours based on traces of the original medieval scheme, a project that provoked debate among critics and historians.

Timeline

• 876: The Sancta Camisia is traditionally said to have been given to Chartres by Charles the Bald.
• 1020: After a fire, Bishop Fulbert begins a new Romanesque cathedral.
• c. 1145–1155: The west front and Royal Portal are built.
• 1194, 10–11 June: Fire destroys most of the cathedral.
• c. 1220: The nave of the new cathedral is largely complete.
• c. 1205–1240: Most of the stained-glass windows are made.
• 1260, 24 October: The cathedral is consecrated in the presence of Louis IX.
• 1507–1513: Jehan de Beauce builds the north tower’s Flamboyant spire.
• 1979: Chartres Cathedral becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why it matters

Chartres shows Gothic architecture reaching maturity: tall, light-filled and structurally bold, yet unified by a single vision. Because so much of its glass and sculpture survives, it offers the clearest idea of how a great thirteenth-century cathedral looked and taught. For historians and visitors alike, it is a window into the faith, wealth and craftsmanship of medieval France.