Chartres

A city in northern France which is the site of an important pilgrimage church since the Carolingian period (mid-13th century). Chartres was named after a Celtic tribe, the Canutes, who made it their principal Druidic center. It was attacked several times by the Normans and was burned by them in 858. A series of fires destroyed Notre-Dame, but after 1145 it was reconstructed as one of Europe's greatest Gothic cathedrals.

A city in Eure, northern France, where since the Carolingian period there has always been an important pilgrimage church holding relics of the Virgin Mary. A series of disastrous fires destroyed the earlier churches, although part of the Ottoman period (10th century) ambulatory crypt still survives below the present east end. After 1145, dedicated townsfolk helped to reconstruct the church as one of Europe’s greatest Gothic cathedrals. The late 12th- and 13th-century building was constructed out of Bercheres stone to an advanced Gothic design, starting with its twin-towered facade containing three magnificent portals. The long nave terminates in an advanced chavet with aisled transepts and an ambulatory apse with radiating chapels. The nave is very high, and has ribbed quadripartite vaults supported externally by flying buttresses and internally by slender piers surrounded by columns. The most outstanding feature of Chartres Cathedral is its series of 173 stained glass windows dating from the 12th and 13th centuries; indeed the town itself became a centre for stained glass production, and the interior of the building mirrors the great regard that local businesses and shops held for their church. Almost as famous as the cathedral’s stained glass is its school of sculpture, examples of which can be seen around the portals and entrance ways of the exterior.