1. Notre-Dame de
Chartres

2. Prepared by:
Noor Halisah Binti Nasaruddin
Mohd Hafizi
Mohd Hazlan
Presented to:
Mdm Sharifah

3. Introduction
• Originally named as Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres in
French, it is now commonly known as the Cathedral of Our
Lady of Chartres.
• Located in Chartres, about 80 kilometres (50mi) southwest
of Paris
• Is considered as the finest examples in all France of the
Gothic style in architecture.

4. Introduction
• From a distance view, it seems to hover in mid-
air above waving fields of wheat.
• Its two contrasting spires — one, a 105 metre
(349 ft) plain pyramid dating from the 1140s,
and the other a 113 metre (377 ft) tall
early 16th century Flamboyant spire on top of
an older tower — soar upwards over the pale
green roof, while all around the outside are
complex flying buttresses.

5. History
• Was the most important building in town of Chartres.
• Was the centre of economy.
• The most famous landmark.
• The focal point of almost every activity that is provided by
civic buildings in town today.
• In the Middle Ages, functioned as sometimes as a
marketplace, with the different portals of the basilica
selling different items: textiles at the northern end; fuel,
vegetables and meat at the southern one.
• Chartres was a place of pilgrimage (where the crypt of the
original church became a hospital to take care of the sick)

6. Cathedral Building History
• At least five cathedrals on this site, each replacing an
earlier smaller building that had been destroyed by the war
or fire.
• It was called the 'Church of Saint Mary' in the eighth
century, and in 876 Charlemagne's grandson, Charles the
Bald, gifted the Virgin's great relic, the Sancta Camisia, to
the cathedral.

7. Cathedral Building History
• This veil is now housed in the cathedral treasury.
• The present dedication to 'Beata Maria Assumpta' probably
dates from this gift.
• The earlier church had been destroyed by the Danes in 858.
• There was another fire in 962, and a more devastating
conflagration in 1020 after which Bishop Fulbert
reconstructed the whole building.
• Most of the present crypt, which is the largest in France,
remains from that period.

8. Chapel of the Sancta Micasa

9. Con’t
• Construction began in a blaze of enthusiasm dubbed the "Cult of the
Carts".
• During this religious outburst a crowd of more than a thousand penitents
dragged carts filled with building provisions including stones, wood, grain,
etc. to the site.
• Bishop Fulbert established Chartres as one of the leading teaching schools
in Europe. Great scholars were attracted to the cathedral,
including Thierry of Chartres, William of Conches and the Englishman John
of Salisbury.
• These men were at the forefront of the intense intellectual rethinking that
we call the twelfth-century renaissance, and that led to
the Scholastic philosophy that dominate medieval thinking.

10. Con’t
• In 1134 another fire damaged the town, and perhaps
part of the cathedral.
• The sculpture of the Royal Portal was installed with it,
probably just before 1140.
• It was once thought that this sculpture was intended
for another place and moved here, but recent
investigation has shown that all three doors and the
magnificent figures around them were created for their
present situation.
• The two towers were then completed fairly quickly
and, between them on the first level, a chapel
constructed to Saint Michael.

11. Con’t
• Traces of the vaults and the shafts which supported them
are still visible in the western two bays.
• The glass in the three lancets over the portals which once
illuminated this chapel were installed in about 1145.
• The south spire is 103 meters high, and was completed
before 1155.
• Finally, on 10 June 1194 another fire destroyed nearly the
whole of Fulbert's cathedral.

12. Con’t
• The cathedral has been fortunate in being
spared the damage suffered by so many
during the Wars of Religion and
the Revolution, though the lead roof was
removed to make bullets and the Directorate
threatened to destroy the building as its
upkeep, without a roof, had become too
onerous.

13. Con’t
• All the glass was removed just before the
Germans invaded France in 1939, and was
cleaned after the War and releades and since
then the fabric has been lovingly tendered
and repaired in a most scrupulous fashion to
retain its original character and beauty.

14. Walking the famous labyrinth in
Chartres Cathedral.

15. Jamb statues of Saints Martin, Jerome,
and Gregory

16. Construction Methods and
Material Used

17. Plan and elevation
• The plan is cruciform, with a 28 metres (92 ft)
long singled-aisled nave, and
short transepts (three bays deep) to the south
and north.
• The east end is rounded with a double-
aisled ambulatory, from which radiate three
deep semi-circular chapels (overlying the deep
chapels of Fulbert's 11th-century apse) and four
much shallower ones, one of which was
effectively lost in the 1320s when the Chapel
of St Piat was built.

18. Chartres Floor Plan

19. Southern Elevation

20. • The cathedral extensively used flying buttresses
in its original plan, and these supported the
weight of the extremely high vaults, at the time
of being built, the highest in France.
• The new High Gothic cathedral at Chartres used
four rib vaults in a rectangular space, instead of
six in a square pattern, as in earlier Gothic
cathedrals such as at Laon.
• The skeletal system of supports, from the
compound piers all the way up to the springing
and transverse and diagonal ribs, allowed large
spaces of the cathedral to be free for stained
glass work, as well as a towering height.

21. • The spacious nave stands 36 metres (118 ft)
high, and there is an unbroken view from the
western end right along to the magnificent
dome of the apse in the east.
• Clustered columns rise dramatically from plain
bases to the high pointed arches of the ceiling,
directing the eye to the massive clerestory
windows in the apse.

22. Windows
• The cathedral has three large rose windows:
- one on the west front with a theme of The
Last Judgment.
- one on the north transept with a theme of the
Glorification of the Virgin.
- one on the south transept with a theme of the
Glorification of Christ.

23. Windows
• Chartres is noted for its many large stained glass windows.
Dating from the early 13th century, the glass largely
escaped harm during the religious wars of the 16th
century; it is said to constitute one of the most complete
collections of medieval stained glass in the world, despite
"modernization" in 1753 when some of it was removed by
well-intentioned but misguided clergy.
• Of the original 186 stained glass windows, 152 survive.
• The windows are particularly renowned for their vivid blue
colour, especially in a representation of the Madonna and
Child known as the Blue Virgin Window, a traditional
iconography known as the Seat of Wisdom. The Jesse
Tree window is another noted window at Chartres.

24. Windows
• Several of the windows were donated by royalty, such
as the rose window at the north transept, which was a
gift from the French queen Blanche of Castile.
• The royal influence is shown in some of the long
rectangular lancet windows which display the royal
symbols of the yellow fleurs-de-lis on a blue
background and also yellow castles on a red
background.
• Windows were also donated from lords, locals and
tradespeople.
• The windows also present the first
European wheelbarrow.

25. Glass Window

26. Porches
• On the doors and porches, medieval carvings of statues
holding swords, crosses, books and trade tools parade
adorn the portals.
• The sculptures on the west façade depict Christ's ascension
into heaven, episodes from his life, saints, apostles, Christ
in the lap of Mary and other religious scenes.
• Below the religious figures are statues of kings and queens,
which is the reason why this entrance is known as the
'royal' portal.
• While these figures are based on figures from the Old
Testament, they were also regarded as images of current
kings and queens when they were constructed.

27. Porches
• The symbolism of showing royalty displayed
slightly lower than the religious sculptures, but
still very close, implies the relationship between
the kings and God.
• It is a way of displaying the authority of royalty,
showing them so close to figures of Christ, it gives
the impression they have been ordained and put
in place by God.
• Sculptures of the Seven Liberal Arts appear in
the archivolt of the right bay of the Royal Portal,
indicating the influence of the school at Chartres.

28. Depiction of Pride on the left pillar of
the central bay of the south porch of
Chartres Cathedral