Chartres

Chartres may not be a very prominent blip on most tourists' radar, but after having taken a French class on cathedrals in my last semester at UGA, I was inspired to visit this small city located just an hour outside Paris by train.

Like with Rouen last fall, seeing the cathedral was my main reason for visiting the city... and also like Rouen last fall, Chartres' cathedral was also undergoing massive restorations, which are even visible from this photo taken from near the train station. One of these days I'll learn to investigate ahead of time if there's construction going on...

The cathedral is visible from just about everywhere in town, so it was our logical first stop (after detouring for a ham and cheese sandwich).

Forgive me for a moment, because I'm about to geek out about this awesome Gothic structure. Notre-Dame de Paris may be the most aesthetically pleasing Gothic cathedral in France, but Chartres' Cathédrale Notre-Dame is probably the most interesting, at least in my opinion.

For the probably very few of you who haven't yet rolled their eyes and clicked back to email or facebook or something more interesting, I'll tell you why! I wish I'd been able to look back on my class notes for Chartres so as to be a better tour guide before going with Vanessa, and I wish I had them now too as I'm blogging about it.

So, from entirely fallible memory: Several Reasons Why Chartres is Awesome.

1. Layer upon layer of rich symbolism

(much of which surprisingly has nothing to do with traditional Christianity)

The first thing you notice when approaching the cathedral is the difference in the two towers. One is Minas Tirith, and the other is Minas Morgul... just kidding. The one on the left is the Gothic-style Sun Spire, and on the right is the Romanesque-style Moon Spire. On second thought, maybe I'm not so far off-base with the Lord of the Rings jokes after all...

This cathedral abounds with references to the lunar cycle, one of which being that the difference in height between the two towers is 28 feet, the number of days in a lunar cycle (yeah, yeah, Europe's all Metric now, but this was back in the day when a foot was someone's actual foot).

2. Badass labyrinth

No, you're not likely to get lost in it, but the design and symbolism of this stone labyrinth set in the floor of the nave are still pretty cool, especially since it's one of the only ones still intact since the Middle Ages. The path winds around haphazardly, sometimes approaching the center, sometimes extending back towards the edge.

It's sometimes called the "chemin de Jérusalem" (path of Jerusalem), probably because the holy lands were forbidden to Christians at the time, so following the labyrinth might have replaced actually voyaging to Jerusalem.

A less religion-specific theory is that the labyrinths adopt a pagan symbol to represent the trajectory from birth to death and the afterlife. We're born into the profane world, shown by the entrance to and outer edge of the circle and wend our way --sometimes with strange detours -- to death and paradise at the center.

Like the difference in the heights of the Sun and Moon towers, the diameter of the labyrinth is 28 feet (which is also the same size as the rose window on the west façade), echoing the importance of the lunar cycle. I also remember learning that the number of stones used in the labyrinth equals the number of days in a pregnancy, which reinforces the idea of spiritual rebirth (via death) at the center.

3. Stained-glass windows and the zodiac

For anyone who believes that the zodiac and Christianity are incompatible, here's solid proof that that's not true. The above is one of the cathedral's most famous stained glass windows, with representations of all the signs of the zodiac and the months of the year. Chartres is also famous for the deep blue of its windows, known as "le bleu de Chartres." And if stained glass windows weren't enough to draw you in, the arches around the North entrance to the cathedral also feature carved versions of the signs of the zodiac.

4. Badass relics

Above is le voile de la Vierge, known in English (I think?) as the Sancta Camisa. Supposedly it's the tunic the Virgin Mary wore at Jesus' birth, and somewhere along the line it came into the possession of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres. In fact, its survival of the fire that destroyed all but the romanesque tower in the 1100s is the main reason the cathedral was rebuilt so quickly, since it was interpreted as a good omen.

It could be said that historians looking back can find all sorts of coincidences and symbols that weren't originally intended by the architects, but there are enough similarities between cathedrals to lead me to think that they are beautifully executed buildings. Their many layers of symbols, both religious, secular, and sometimes downright superstitious served to appeal to and/or intimidate all layers of society, so I'd say they succeeded. If I haven't managed to convince you by now that cathedrals are at least somewhat cool, then I give up!

In addition to the domineering cathedral, Chartres itself is a beautiful little town, especially on a fine spring day. I'll round out this already ridiculously long entry with some shots from around town:

(I swiped a couple photos from the internet due to construction and the labyrinth being covered by chairs when we visited. The first image of the façade comes from here , and the bird's eye view of the labyrinth comes from here.)