On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
MollyS
In April 2015, my son and I went to Paris to visit my daughter, who’d recently moved there. She was busy one cool rainy weekday, so he and I took the train to Chartres, about 60 miles southwest of Paris. The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres was built between 1020-1220 and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It may be best known for its two very different spires. Its numbers are awesome — 142 yards long (almost 1.5 football fields), about 83,000 square feet of interior floor space, 176 stained-glass windows (28,000 square feet), and 3,500 statues. The vaulted ceiling in the nave rises 123 feet, about 11 stories high. The cathedral was undergoing a years-long cleaning/restoration and some sections were closed off. There were few visitors that day so my son took up with one of the guards who gave us a personal tour. These are my son’s pictures as my small camera was no match for his Nikon.
The cathedral from the train station … the smaller spire is a 349-foot-tall, plain pyramid, completed around 1160. The second spire is 377 feet, built in the early 16th century. Called a Flamboyant spire (a late-Gothic style), it was built on top of an older tower. In 1836, a fire destroyed the roof’s wooden interior framing. That was replaced by a cast-iron structure; the roof was covered in copper plates which are now green. There are many terrific exterior images of the cathedral online, taken on sunny days, that show the immense size of the cathedral and how it’s located within the town itself. (google Chartres Cathedral and click on images).
The west portal, or Portail royal, is the main entrance to the cathedral. It is one of the few sections of the building to survive the 1194 fire. The Portal depicts Christ’s life and ministry, up to the Second Coming. Visitors enter through either of the side doors, from the large square. The center door is only opened for processions during major festivals.
During the French Revolution (1789-1799), many churches and cathedrals were vandalized. Their gold, silver, and jeweled items were taken, and the buildings turned into secular institutions. Many exterior statues were damaged when heads and hands were chopped off or broken. Chartres’ religious objects were plundered and its lead roof melted down to make cannons and musket balls. But the majority of its statues remained intact, except for …
… these holy persons (and a few others).
The South Transcept was added in the 13th century and portrays events after Christ’s crucifixion and the time of the early Christian martyrs.
Detail from the South Transcept. You can easily see the centuries of dirt and soot on the stone and statues.
The Chevet is the eastern end of the cathedral. It features the double flying buttresses (visible at the top of the picture) that made it possible to install the huge stained glass windows. If you want to get into the weedy details about all the geometry and math needed to plan and build a Gothic cathedral like Chartres, check https://chartrescathedralconceptualplan.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/chartres-cathedral-analysis-of-the-floor-plan/ … Then imagine doing all that with no machinery, cranes, or calculators.
The outdoor labyrinth in the Jardin de l’Évêché, or Bishop’s Garden, adjacent to the cathedral. We weren’t able to photograph the more elaborate interior labyrinth, laid out in the early 1200s, which stretches 42 feet across in the nave (again Google is your friend here). Usually covered with chairs, the indoor labyrinth is uncovered every Friday from Lent to Nov. 1. No pictures are allowed when pilgrims are walking the labyrinth. There was a brass or copper plaque at the center but it was removed in 1792 to be melted down to make cannons for the new Army of the Revolution. The rivets in the floor are still there.
The town of Chartres, from the Jardin de l’Évêché.
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opiejeanne
Thank you for posting this. It is an amazing space.
We stopped at Chartres in 2012 on our way back to Paris from the Loire Valley. We didn’t have a decent GPS back then but we could see these spires rising above the plains from a distance and thought that certainly couldn’t be Chartres Cathedral.
I regret that I have no photos from that stop, even though I must have taken some.
ETA: IIRC, the windows survived because they were packed up and stored during WWII. They are marvelous.
Benw
Great pics, they evoke the grandeur of those cathedrals. I kinda love that in the Chevet picture there’s what looks like a wisteria going to town in the corner!
pat
I was there in the early 70s and remember the view from the countryside of those mismatched towers.
Can’t think of anything to add except thanks for the new photos and information.
Soprano2
Your pictures are a lot better than the ones I took with my little Instamatic camera. They bring back memories. My college choir sang there in January 1980. Our conductor said Chartres had the most beautiful stained glass of any cathedral in Europe. I don’t know if that is true, but it was beautiful – jewel-like. We sat there for an hour while they told us the history of the town and cathedral. I remember that it burned and was rebuilt at least 3 times. He said a grandson might finish the work started by his grandfather. It took something like 75 years to build it the last time, and the whole village would work on it. Since it was January and those places aren’t heated, I was wishing he would finish so we could sing! Singing in a place like that is an awesome experience. Those trips were the highlight of my college career.
randy khan
I’ve been to Notre Dame, Ste. Chapelle, and Rheims, but never to Chartres. I now see that I really need to go there.
Lapassionara
Thank you! These are wonderful photos.
JanieM
Thanks for the pictures and explanations. The fifth one, of the South Transept, just bowls me over. Also the labyrinth. I’ve never been to France, but BJ is certainly trying to make me remedy that omission. Then again, I spent an hour in York Minster in 2008 and had to fight back tears the whole time, so I’m not sure I’m ready for a series of even more beautiful cathedrals.
dnfree
That is beautiful, and thanks for the tips to see more online. These photos are excellent. I’ve seen Notre Dame in Paris and York, Wells, and Durham in England and all of them are unique. I suspect I’ll never make it there in person.
Auntie Anne
When we visited, there was a wedding going on. It was awesome to see the bride and groom on the west side steps!
PJ
@Soprano2:
If you make it to France again and go to Paris, check out the stained glass at Sainte-Chapelle in the Ile de la Cite, it’s really something – the most beautiful stained glass I’ve seen.
opiejeanne
@PJ: I agree. St Chapelle is incredible, the most beautiful glass I’ve ever seen, and that’s not to take anything away from Chartres or any of the other gorgeous windows I saw in France..
Fair Economist
My son did a school paper on the Chartres renovation and I’m just dying to see it now. Thanks for the pics and info!
Dorothy A. Winsor
Years ago we took the train from Paris to Chartres to spend a day. We worried that when we got to the Chartres train station , we wouldn’t know which way to go to get to the cathedral. Of course, as your first picture shows, that was absurd! Thanks for the pics and the memories.
J_A
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Probably one of the most surprising difference between Europe and America (at least west of the Appalachian mountains) is how relatively small (and walkable) all but the very largest cities are. You can reach almost anywhere in a midsize provincial capital city in a 30 minutes walk.
The other big difference, even more surprising, is how dense the countries are. There’s nowhere you can stand that you don’t see houses and villages less than a mile away.
J_A
@PJ:
What makes the Sainte Chapelle unique is that, because of its smaller size, the stained glass windows are much closer to the viewer, and you feel you are totally surrounded by magical light. In the larger cathedrals the windows are too far up away to provide the same warmth.
The large cathedrals magic is the amazing height and space that bring your eye upwards towards heaven. In the Sainte Chapelle, on the other hand, you feel you have indeed arrived to heaven already. Of course, remember, the Sainte Chapelle is a giant reliquary for the Crown of Thorns itself
HinTN
All y’all Jackals know so damn much that (sometimes ?) it’s just a privilege to read these comments
MollyS
@Soprano2: I’m no cathedral expert, and my opinion may be hampered by the fact that it was a rainy day when we went to Chartres, but I think the windows at Sainte-Chappelle are beyond breathtaking, starting with the shock that happens when you step out of the stairwell into the space.
MollyS
@Lapassionara: You’re welcome! I’ll pass this along to my son, the photographer.
MollyS
@PJ: Absolutely. And try to visit on a sunny day!
MollyS
@Fair Economist: I also sent a set of pictures of the interior, including the renovations that were happening when we were there.
MollyS
@J_A: You’re so right. From the Boulevard Périphérique, the distance from the northern city boundary of Paris to the south is about six miles. The east-west boundary is about 9 miles and the entire city is only 33.5 square miles. London, in contrast, covers about 600 square miles.
MollyS
@Lapassionara: You’re welcome!