Chartres Cathedral, also known as Notre Dame de Chartres is about 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Paris & is the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. Mostly constructed between 1194 and 1220, it is in the High Gothic & Romanesque styles.
The Cathedral was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979, which called it "the high point of French Gothic Art & a "masterpiece".
The Cathedral is well-preserved &well-restored: the majority of the original stained-glass windows survive intact, while the architecture has seen only minor changes since the early 13th century. The building's exterior is dominated by heavy flying buttresses which allowed the architects to increase the window size significantly, while the west end is dominated by two contrasting spires – a 105-metre (349 ft) plain pyramid completed around 1160 & a 113-metre (377 ft) early 16th-century flamboyant spire on top of an older tower. Equally notable are the three great façades, each adorned with hundreds of sculpted figures illustrating key theological themes & narratives.
Since at least the 12th century the cathedral has been an important destination for travelers. It remains so to the present, attracting large numbers of Christian pilgrims, many of whom come to venerate its famous relic, the Sancta Camisa, said to be the tunic worn by the Virgin Mary at Christ's birth, as well as large numbers of secular tourists who come to admire the cathedral's architecture & historical merit.
Trying something new today. I've created a slideshow that I published on YouTube, rather than posting each individual image which is quite time consuming. This first one is the Cathedral.
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