The Gothic Cathedral of Chartres

Over a period of a hundred years, from about 1140 to 1240 CE, ten of the finest Gothic cathedrals in Europe were built in a small area of France, a region surrounding Paris called the Ile de France. The cathedral in the small city of Chartres stands out as the only one to survive almost exactly as it was in the 13th century. The floor plan of Chartres Cathedral is shaped like a Latin cross. The nave, choir, and transepts meet at a central crossing. Like other Gothic cathedrals, Chartres used architectural innovations to create a building of a kind never seen before. These new techniques made possible a cathedral 509 feet long, with a nave 121 feet tall, and towers 351 and 377 feet high. The cathedral as we know it today replaced an earlier church that burned down in 1194. Only the porch of the west front of the older building survived the fire. This is fortunate, since it preserved the superb 12th century column statues of the royal portal and elaborately carved entrance. The sculptures added during the 13th century reconstruction gave Chartres an exceptionally fine collection of Gothic statuary. In Gothic cathedrals, three pairs of pointed arches are arranged to form a structure called a rib vault. These vaults were able to create an interior much more spacious than that of earlier buildings, and also gave worshippers the impression of great height. The arches seemed to soar toward heaven itself. In a stone building constructed with rib vaults, the immense weight of the stone pushed down and outwards. Unless the walls were extremely thick and solid, the pressure could cause them to collapse. The solution to this problem was a feature that characterized the Gothic style and facilitated the sheer scale of cathedrals like Chartres, the flying buttress. These arch-shaped supports attached to the exterior of a building directed the weight of the vaults into the ground, thus supporting the walls. This innovation, in turn, made possible one of the great wonders of Chartres, its vast collection of Gothic stained glass. Since the flying buttresses avoided the need for solid walls, large spaces could be filled with colored glass, bathing the interior with a light that medieval architects termed lux nova, Latin for new light. There are 176 windows in total, and three spectacular rose windows. The windows in the choir are devoted to the Virgin Mary, to whom the cathedral is dedicated. Holy relics, such as the cloak of the Virgin Mary located at Chartres, were hugely sought after in the Middle Ages. They became status symbols for their owners, and a destination for pilgrims. During the 1940s, all of the stained glass was removed from the cathedral to ensure the safety of the windows from World War II bombs. A photograph taken at the time reveals a somber contrast with the medieval lux nova. Chartres was an important pilgrimage site. When the cathedral was rebuilt in the 13th century, a labyrinth made of blue and white stone was laid out on the floor inside the west front. Such mazes were popular in pilgrimage churches from the end of the 12th century. Those who were not able to undertake the long pilgrimage to the Holy Land could instead trace the labyrinth on their knees. In the case of Chartres, this was a distance of 965 feet. Visitors to France can see many fine Gothic cathedrals, but only Chartres has survived almost intact. Entering the cathedral still provides a vivid impression of the awe felt by medieval pilgrims as they experience an interior lit by celestial light, filtered through the stained glass windows.