Chartres Cathedral
The Gothic cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres, largely rebuilt within a generation after a devastating fire in 1194.
When fire gutted the earlier Romanesque church at Chartres in 1194, its most precious relic — a length of cloth venerated as the Virgin Mary's veil — was found unharmed in the crypt, and townspeople took it as a sign to rebuild grander than before. The new cathedral rose in a remarkably short span for the period, giving it an unusual architectural unity, and its 176 stained-glass windows, including panels colored with the pigment now known as "Chartres blue," survived the French Revolution and two world wars largely intact. It remains one of the best-preserved High Gothic cathedrals in Europe. More in our article on Chartres Cathedral.
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