Let me update this older post on one of the magnificent monuments of my belle France. Funny I look at my pictures and posts and got to notice I/we tend to post mostly from the areas we live in and once we moved we forget the old places. I think this is the case with Chartres in dept 28 of Eure et Loir in the Centre Val de Loire region, and in my belle France. It is about 125 km from my current town; and 75 km from my former town of Versailles.
However, the main thing in Chartres is one of the grand cathedrals of France and one I had the priviledge of going to its basement to see wonders not shown to the general public on a tour from the Château de Versailles! Love it! Therefore, let me tell you my bit more on the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Chartres !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
The Notre Dame Cathedral of Chartres is the best example of gothic art in France! Work on it began in 1120, but the biggest construction period took part from 1194 to 1260. It is about 131 meters long by 46 meters wide with a general dimension of 5 200 square meters; at the transept it is 63 meters and the nave height is 37 meters and a width of 16 meters! The main façade 30 meters long has 719 statues depicting the life of Jesus most of them of Roman style. The central window and highest has a rosary of 11,5 meters a fine gallery of the 13C with niches of 15 grand statues of kings with a space with a statue of the Virgin and on top a colossal praying Christ .
In 1353, Cathedral Notre-Dame of Chartres already had an organ: Jehan de Chateaudun appeared as organist of the cathedral. He touches an instrument installed on the platform with double ogival vault in paneled wood, still visible today, hung on the second bay of the southern wall. In 1475, is installed an instrument making speak up to 50 pipes per key in the top, The large rectangular pedal turrets each receive three pipes per turret. The great organ is equipped with a Joël Petrique electronic combiner of 8,848 combinations, organized into 33 workspaces. Each space has 16 series, and each series has 16 combinations (a total of 256 combinations per space). Each space also offers 2 programmable crescendi.
The Portail Nord or north door was probably made between 1210 and 1225. Made up of three bays, it is preceded by as many porches, resting on light supports, decorated with interesting natural motifs. It is that of the Covenant of God with Humanity. central porch, the sculpted program of the 13C begins with the creation of the world, with an obvious concern to encompass all of time. On the trumeau of the central portal, Anne carries the young Mary in her arms. On the tympanum, the Death, Dormition and Coronation of the Virgin, surrounded by her ancestors, complete this frontispiece, designed expressly for the Marian sanctuary. The bells are impressive as well. the one on the right called the old bell is 106,5 meters high is modest with little décor but nice proportions and was finished in 1145; the other on the left called the new bell 115 meters high was finished in periods of 1506-1507 and 1514, to replace the wooden bell that was burn by a lightning in 1506.
In the embrasures, ten biblical characters announce Christ the Savior: Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Simeon, John the Baptist and Peter. At the right door, it is the praise of wisdom, through the biblical stories of Job and Solomon , Gideon, Judith, Esther, Tobit, and Samson . At the left door, it that is to say, on the eastern side, Christian wisdom is revealed: incarnation. On the lintel is represented the Nativity, followed by the announcement to the shepherds. Marie, lying on a bed, shows her hand to her swaddled child placed in a manger. Joseph, seated behind a small column, watches the scene leaning on his staff. Further on, the shepherds learn the Good News from an angel. Above them, angels unroll a banner on which were the first words of the Gloria. The tympanum is dedicated to the adoration of the Magi: Mary presents the child Jesus. One of the kings, having taken off his crown, kneels before him to offer him his present. Next door, the Magi are dozing in a bed. The youngest is awakened by an angel who informs him of Herod’s fatal plan. At the flares, the Annunciation and the Visitation face each other. It will be noted that the large statues, which show true naturalness, now address each other. On the tympanum of the central portal, Mary crowned by Christ also appears as a symbolic figure of the Church, people on the move since the dawn of time, passionately alternating discouragement, enthusiasm and conversion whose extreme dignity God thus consecrates. which can be discerned in certain figures of the central portal. However, it is difficult to imagine what the portal was like in the eyes of the pilgrims of the 13C.
A sculpted angel carries a sundial in her arms.The southern dial, stone-engraved, semi-circular, numbered lines in band, chevron style. This is a copy dating from 1974, the original dated 1578 is placed in the crypt. A copy of this sundial was made at University Hospital in Saint-Louis (USA-MO) In the Tour de Chœur, or choir enclosure, is almost a hundred meters long, 6 meters high, and even more at the tip of the spiers of the upper dais. This fence is made of stone from Vernon and Saint Leu for the lower and upper parts, not to mention stones from Tonnerre and other sources for the sculptures. It was built starting with the two rectilinear parts, first on the north side, quickly followed by the south. The wall is divided into forty bays, delimited by buttresses adorned with statues of bishops. Vertically, there are four levels: a base sometimes decorated with sculpted medallions, a skylight, filled almost entirely with plaster, 40 niches filled with sculpted scenes, and a crowning canopy made of stone lacework, in the flamboyant style.
The sculpture takes a major dimension in Notre Dame Cathedralof Chartres since the whole of the statuary counts nearly 6000 statues Thus the sculptures of the western portal, the Royal Portal, date from the years 1145-1150 and are located just at the hinge between the Romanesque and the Gothic . The south and north portals are fully Gothic since they were made between 1205 and 1215 for one, and 1210 and 1225 for the other by a group of sculptors, mostly anonymous.These sculpted scenes tell the unfolding of the story of Mary and Jesus: its reading begins from the south transept, and by entering the ambulatory. He wears the pontifical tiara, holds the globe in his right hand and probably carried the scepter in his left hand unfortunately cut off. It is the Creator, at the origin of everything, and who will give his son to the World in the Christian Revelation. The first two scenes show us a man and a woman, the man is Joachim, father of Marie. One day of great feast in Israel, he is refused his offerings by the high priest because of his sterility, a condition considered a divine disgrace. Joachim, ashamed before God and confused before men, goes to hide his tears by keeping the flocks away, abandoning his house and his wife, who remained at home in tears. Hence Joachim on the left and Anne on the right. Angels are divine messengers coming to reveal the designs of God. Joachim and Anne receive the same message: a child promised to a special destiny will be given to them. The angel invites them to meet at the golden gate of Jerusalem. All of the 37 scenes that follow summarize the life of Mary and Jesus, ending in the north in the apotheosis of Mary’s coronation in heaven by the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Spirit.
The sacristy is an elegant construction from the end of the 13C. The treasury was constituted around insignia relics such as the heads of Saint Anne or Saint Matthew, but one of the pillars of the foundation and growth of the treasury of Notre-Dame is incontestably the relic of the veil of the Virgin , called holy shirt before the 18C or Sancta Camisia.
This is the Virgin Notre Dame du Pilier ! This is a statue in walnut or pear tree formerly polychrome, placed on an octagonal base; statue wearing a head veil and dressed in a piece of fabric, placed on the front and tied with two laces around the Virgin’s neck, a small piece of fabric is also tied around the neck of the Child Jesus. Virgin and Child seated on a throne, the Virgin presents a pear in the right hand, the Child Jesus blesses with the right hand and holds the ball with the other hand.
The Notre Dame Cathedral of Chartres has 172 stained glass windows that cover an area of over 2600 m2. Gothic, most of them were made from 1205 to 1240. Some even date from the 12C, a rare heritage from the past which has survived the vagaries of time and fashions. Thus, in the 18C, the canons replaced certain bays in the choir with white windows in order to let more light pass. In the 20C, in order to preserve them from world wars, they were completely dismantled and stored before returning to their original place. Despite certain modifications, this set appears to be one of the most complete of the medieval period. They represent biblical scenes, faithful to the idea that the cathedral is a Bible of images, but also the donors who made it possible. It covers 1350 objects from the Old Testament and the New Testament ; from the life of Saints, martyrs, popes, bishops and priests to representation of orders with their emblems that help construct or embellish the Cathedral. As you enter the Cathedral on the left see the statue of the Black Virgin done from the 16C and greatly venerated today.
The labyrinth in Notre Dame Cathedral of Chartres is the only circular one to have been preserved in a cathedral. its diameter is nearly 12 meters. Eleven concentric bands will lead the pilgrim on his knees six times to the center of the labyrinth, then away from him before he reaches the central slab. Initially, this slab was a bronze plaque on which was represented Theseus and the Minotaur, it would have disappeared during the requisitions of metal in 1793. The outer edge of the labyrinth is decorated with 113 battlements, which give it the air of a toothed wheel. This labyrinth, whose diameter is equivalent to one tenth of the interior length of the cathedral, takes place at a particular place in the cathedral. Located between the third and fourth bay of the nave, its entrance corresponds to the entrance to Fulbert Cathedral. In addition, the rose on the western facade is perfectly superimposed on its center. the usefulness of labyrinths in cathedrals is intriguing. However the names which have been attributed to that of Chartres allow some interpretations. Known as the “way to Jerusalem” or as the “league”, the labyrinth would have been used as a substitute for pilgrimage, so long to cover on one’s knees that it gave the impression of extending over a league.
A bit of history I like tell us that the Notre Dame Cathedral of Chartres appears as an alternative to Reims under royalty; it solves the problem of the coronation of Henri IV. He is therefore enthroned king of France on February 27, 1594 in the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Chartres. This coronation allows Henry IV to establish his authority in the kingdom of France and to work for the protection of the Protestant minority by ratifying the Edict of Nantes on April 30, 1598. The Notre-Dame Cathedral of Chartres was vandalized in 1793 (during the French revolution). The damage was material: all the metal in the cathedral, including the bells, was melted down to be used for arming the army. They are also artistic: the black Madonna of the crypt, Notre-Dame-de-sous-Terre, is burnt. Other cathedral treasures suffer a similar fate. The cedar wood shrine plated with gold and covered with precious stones which contained the relic is forced. The rich ornament disappears as the relic itself is shared among the Revolutionary Commissioners. However, part of it was returned to the cathedral during the Restoration. On June 4, 1836, an accidental fire broke out in the Notre Dame Cathedral of Chartres, and destroyed the entire wooden and lead roof. The frame, so complex that it was nicknamed “the forest”, is replaced by iron and the lead cover by copper plates. These, in contact with the air, will oxidize to give the roof this characteristic green color. Despite the vagaries of history, Notre Dame Cathedral remains one of the best-preserved Gothic cathedrals. It also obtains to be the first monument classified as World Heritage by Unesco in 1979!
And it is on the arts as well ! Charles Péguy, The Tapestry of Notre Dame, Paris, Cahiers de la Quinzaine, coll. “Cahiers de la Quinzaine / 14th series” (no 10), 1913, 103 p. And Charles Péguy in his collection “the Tapestry of Notre-Dame” writes the long poem Presentation of Beauce to Notre-Dame de Chartres. One of the best-known paintings is La Cathédrale de Chartres by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, painted in 1830 (now in Louvre museum, Paris).
The city of Chartres on the Cathedral: https://www.chartres.fr/patrimoine-historique/notre-dame-de-chartres/
The Chartres tourist office on the cathedral: https://www.chartres-tourisme.com/en/do-not-miss/the-chartres-cathedral/history-of-chartres-cathedral
This is the official Friends of the Cathedral assoc: http://www.amiscathedrale.com/
There you go folks, come here is a must at least once in your lifetime, The cathedral alone is worth the visit to Chartres, but there is more if you read my old posts. Most of the information above was taken from the officlal Cathedral webpage quickly basic translation by yours truly. Again, hope you enjoy the post on the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Chartres !!! as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 