Tourists are attracted to the exquisite 13th century frescoes and stained-glass windows. In , the stained-glass windows were removed to safety. Allied forces believed the Germans were using the spires as an observation post and so orders for the destruction of the Cathedral were issued. A Colonel Welborn Barton Griffith challenged these orders and went behind German lines and established that the Cathedral was not being used by German soldiers.
The orders to destroy the Cathedral were withdrawn, but sadly Colonel Griffith killed in action on 16 August in a town not far from Chartres. Today the Cathedral remains the seat of the Bishop of Chartres, and attracts thousands of visitors from all over the World who come to admire the architecture and stained-glass windows.
But large numbers of Christian pilgrims have been coming to Chartres since the 12th Century — they come to worship the Sancta Camisa , believed to be the tunic worn by the Virgin Mary during the birth of Jesus Christ. Despite the Cathedral being a functioning church, the town of Chartres is a popular tourist destination and consequently tourists are well catered for.
Chartres Cathedral is open daily from in the morning to at night. The crypts are only available to visitors who take a guided tour — these are not available on Sundays and public holidays. The last opportunity to climb the tower is at pm. The chairs in the nave are cleared on Fridays to enable the maze on the floor to be seen and walked. For about a decade the cathedral has been undergoing a substantial restoration programme. From until a major cleaning of the architectural features and sculptures inside the cathedral was carried out.
The cleaning and making safe of the world-famous stained-glass windows has been ongoing since The cleaning process produces quite a stark change in the look of the church. As seen in the photograph below. Here you can see a bright section of the ceiling that has just been cleaned, next to the still blackened ceiling that has yet to be restored. The vast nave, in pure ogival style, the porches adorned with fine sculptures from the middle of the 12th century, and the magnificent 12th- and 13th-century stained-glass windows, all in remarkable condition, combine to make it a masterpiece.
De Kathedraal van Chartres is gedeeltelijk gebouwd in en na de brand in in 26 jaar voltooid. De kathedraal markeert het hoogtepunt van de Franse gotische kunst. Het enorme schip van de kerk is gebouwd in pure spitsboogstijl en de portalen zijn versierd met fijn beeldhouwwerk uit het midden van de 12e eeuw. De prachtige 12e en 13e-eeuwse gebrandschilderde ramen — beroemd om hun diepblauwe kleur, het Chartres blauw — verkeren in een opmerkelijk goede staat.
De kathedraal geldt als Frans meesterwerk en wordt gebruikt als een pelgrimskerk. Chartres is ook bekend vanwege zijn labyrint uit , ingelegd in marmer.
Source: unesco. Notre-Dame de Chartres Cathedral, located in the Centre-Val-de-Loire region, is one of the most authentic and complete works of religious architecture of the early 13th century. It was the destination of a pilgrimage dedicated to the Virgin Mary, among the most popular in all medieval Western Christianity. Because of the unity of its architecture and decoration, the result of research of the first Gothic era, its immense influence on the art of Middle Age Christianity, Chartres Cathedral appears as an essential landmark in the history of medieval architecture.
The outstanding stained-glass ensemble, monumental statuary of the 12th and 13th centuries and the painted decorations miraculously preserved from the ravages of humankind and time, make Chartres one of the most admirable and the best-preserved examples of Gothic art.
A little later, the nave and the choir, reconstructed as of , effected for the first time an architectural formula which would be widely employed throughout the 13th century. The monumental sculptures of Chartres Cathedral are valued both for their abundance and for their quality: the large ensembles, reliefs and statues, of the Royal Portail at the entrance to the nave, the six portals and two porches dating from at the north and south entrances to the transept, offer a complete panorama of Gothic sculpture from the moment when it broke from Romanesque traditions to attain the subtle balance of idealism and realism that characterises its apogee.
In this cathedral, seat of a renowned school, technical and artistic mastery were at the service of a highly developed iconographic science. Finally, Chartres Cathedral has almost totally conserved its homogeneous decor of stained-glass windows executed between approximately and Criterion i : Built fairly rapidly and in nearly one stride, Chartres Cathedral, owing to the unity of its architecture and stained-glass, sculptured and painted decoration, constitutes the complete and perfected expression of one of the most characteristic aspects of medieval art.
Criterion ii : Chartres Cathedral has exercised considerable influence on the development of Gothic art in France and beyond. The architects of the Cathedrals of Reims, Amiens and Beauvais have only enriched the fundamental design of Chartres, that was imitated in Cologne in Germany, Westminister in England and Leon in Spain. In the domain of stained glass, the influence of the Chartres workshop ranged widely from Bourges, Sens, Le Mans, Tours, Poitiers, Rouen, Canterbury, through spreading or diffusion of works.
Criterion iv : Chartres Cathedral is both a symbol and a basic building type. Blogroll :. Good blogpost about the cathedral here.
Directions and time to Chartres. To get directions and time to Chartres and see map, type in your post code or your starting point, i. Back to Abbeys. Back to top. Loire wines. Regional map Chateaux map What's on. French national holiday dates. Back to Abbeys Chartres Back to top.
0コメント