Chartres Cathedral

Chartres cathedral, seen in full from the south.

Chartres cathedral, front view (from the west)

Chartres Cathedral (French: Notre-Dame de Chartres, Our Lady of Chartres) is a cathedral. It is in Chartres, about 80 km south of Paris. It is built in the Gothic style. Together with Amiens Cathedral and Reims Cathedral it is considered to be one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture (for churches) in France.

Stained glass of the Cathdral

A church was inaugurated at the spot by Charles the Bald in the year 864. The cathedral as it stands now was built from 1194 to 1260. It was made a basilica minor in 1908. In 1964 it was made an World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Chartres Cathedral Media

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  Chartres Cathedral by night

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  The 1836 fire of Chartres Cathedral by François-Alexandre Pernot (1837)

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  Inside the roof-space, the charpente de fer, built c. 1840

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  Window of the Vendôme Chapel, c. 1415

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  Pythagoras on one of the archivolts over the right door of the west portal at Chartres

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  Chartres floorplan (1856) by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879)

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  The elevation of the nave, showing the gallery on the ground level; the narrow triforium; and, on top, the windows of the clerestory

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  Flying buttress supporting the upper walls and counterbalancing the outward thrust of the vaulted ceiling, allowing thin walls and greater space for windows

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  Flying buttresses seen from above