The cathedral at Chartres sufficiently impressed us as students that it was one of the places we most wanted to revisit. Chartres lies about 90 km southwest of Paris, so it was up early and off on the Metro to the train station once again.
Chartres is too close for a TGV train, so we got the local instead, and the trip took about an hour and 20 minutes, with stops along the way. The cars on the local were a little worn around the edges, but quite comfortable . . . except for not having any operating bathrooms! We got to Chartres just before 11:00, and as we left the station we saw one poor guy relieving himself against a wall between some trash bins. Uh oh, are we going to have a problem today? As it turns out, nope. Chartres depends heavily on tourism, and there was a public facility on our way to the cathedral. Unfortunately, the women’s side was unusably filthy, so Loni had to wait until we found one of the many shops sprinkled around the town that offered their facilities for 50 cents a go. The tourist bureau had a map that showed where they all were, unlike in Paris.
It’s easy to navigate around in Chartres. The cathedral easily dominates the skyline, and you can almost always catch a glimpse of one of the spires. The countryside surrounding Chartres is quite flat, and you can see the towers from 30 miles away. When we rounded the final corner and got our first glimpse of the whole front façade, we were dismayed. It’s undergoing renovation!
It was more than just a facelift. They had completely removed the beautiful rose window from this front face. When we got inside, we were presented instead with a huge silkscreen on which they had imaged the window. Clever, but a pale substitute indeed.
What they’re up to on the interior is a good cleaning and a painting of the inside surfaces. Yup, paint! I didn’t think they did that to stone, but apparently in olden days they had quite a variety of hues adorning various surfaces in churches. They’re sticking with white here, and the one area they had completed was ten times brighter than the rest. The place should be transformed when they’re done. We had made sure we arrived on a day and at a time when we could take advantage of a tour given in English by the “legendary” Malcolm Miller, an Englishman who decamped from England to Chartres for his thesis back in the ‘50’s. He liked it so much, he has been here giving tours for 56 years! In fact, I asked him afterwards if he had ever been engaged by Stanford to give tours for its students here back in the ‘60’s, and he said yes, he had. So, we very well might have soaked up some of his exposition 45 years ago. He’s internationally recognized as an authority on the cathedral, and received two of the highest French civilian honors: knighthoods in the National Order of Merit and the Order of Arts and Letters. He still puts on a good show. The windows and statuary come to life when you know what they are portraying.
The ones above are part of the North Porch entry. The figures in the big picture are those to Loni’s left in the smaller one. From left to right, these are the priest-king, Melchizedek; Abraham (holding his son Isaac, in preparation for sacrifice. Isaac’s feet are bound, I guess to indicate he wasn’t fully on board with the program.); Moses (pointing to the brazen serpent with which he healed those bitten by poisonous snakes); Aaron or Samuel (knifing the sacrificial lamb); and King David (who prophesied Christ’s passion, so carries a spear and a crown of thorns). What was going on here was religious education for the masses carried out in glass and stone. A “pictorial catechism,” if you will, of prevailing religious thought of the time. It’s pretty neat, once someone decodes it for you, and old Malcolm knows more about it than anyone in the world. He’s on auto pilot by now, but still makes it interesting. We all got earphones and listened via bluetooth as he murmured into his microphone. We could hear perfectly, and he wasn’t disturbing the other visitors or tours.
The present cathedral is at least the fifth to stand on this site. A decree from the reign of Charlemagne’s father, Pepin the Short (751-768), mentioned gifts to the ‘Church of St. Mary’ at Chartres. The devotion to Mary was strengthened in 876, when Charlemagne’s grandson, Charles the Bald, gave to Chartres the “Sancta Camisia,” the garment believed to have been worn by Mary when she gave birth to Christ. Talk about snake oil. Anyway, as Mary grew in theological importance, Chartres grew in importance as a pilgrimage shrine as the faithful flocked to view the nightie. Today, they have it preserved in Lucite behind bars.
The previous cathedral (#4) kept getting damaged by fires (they had wooden roofs), was rebuilt in bits and pieces over centuries, but probably originally dated from 876, with new towers built in the 1100’s. All was for naught, as a devastating fire in 1194 destroyed most of the town and the cathedral. The Chartres we know today, consecrated in 1260, was built in only thirty years (!), with then-unprecedented height, numbers of sculptures, and use of glass. 44 windows were given by royal or aristocratic donors, and they are memorialized by their heraldry set out in the panes. Another 42 windows were given by various merchant fraternities (bakers, farriers, butchers, masons, etc.), and they are represented in scenes portraying their trades.
Because of the current renovation, a lot of the glass was covered up, but what was still visible was impressive. In addition to acting as bragging boards for the guilds and individuals who ponied up the money to build the cathedral, the windows tell Bible stories. This one below tells the story of Adam & Eve. This shot was taken from about 50 feet away, looking up, so it’s a little distorted. The upper quadrant of the center rose has God showing A&E the forbidden fruit; in the circle above that (unfortunately in a shadow), Adam, on the right, clutches his throat after eating the apple. Hundreds and hundreds of Bible tales are enacted in the windows, but this heathen really needs a guide to tell what’s going on. The other scenes in this panel tell the story of the Good Samaritan.
A feature of many medieval French cathedrals was a labyrinth set into the floor of the nave. Most of these have not survived, but the one at Chartres is the largest and best preserved in existence. Some references say that the purpose of the labyrinth is not clear. Our boy Malcolm says that pilgrims would walk it, or go around it on their knees, as a spiritual exercise, perhaps a symbolic pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This one dates from about 1200, so it was part of the previous church that burned down. It has never been restored, and looks today, worn and chipped somewhat, just like it did 800 years ago. It’s made of flagstones from quarries in Bercheres enclosed by bands of black marble, and is 261 meters long. In my picture, most of it sits below the chairs.
Despite the restoration work, the Rose window and lancets over the North transept are visible and luminescent. In the diamonds are the twelve kings of Judah, as Christ’s ancestors; four doves and eight angels surround Mary and Child in the center. Beneath the rose, the center lancet shows St. Anne with the Mary child; flanking her in the other lancets are four Old Testament figures who are trampling underfoot smaller figures, antichrists.
Left to right, they are: Priest-king Melchizedek carrying a chalice representing the virtue of faith; David, with his ten-stringed harp (below him, defeated King Saul is depicted committing hari kari with a broadsword, a logistical conundrum given its size); to the right of Anne is David’s son, Solomon, and under his feet is some idolator worshiping a golden calf; and finally, high priest Aaron wears the Jewish ephod (priestly apron?) and carries the flowering rod given to him by Moses. All very cool stuff when someone points it out.
His hour and a half up (at 10 euros each, minimum party of 12), Malcolm bid us adieu, pointed out the nook where the gift shop resided which, conveniently enough, was laden with various tomes on Chartres by yours truly. We did spring for one, which is how I sound like such a smartypants above. It was getting on towards 2:00, so we wandered into town in search of a place to eat,
and found a cozy spot with a great prix fixe menu for mixed grill and frites plates. A nice pichet of red wine (500ml), and we were set. Again with my extended arm self-portrait.
We wanted to take a walk after lunch through the old medieval town, but we had to hustle back to the station to make our train back to Paris. Chartres was an excellent day trip, and we had a relaxing ride back. I think we had learned the night before that Stanford had just squeaked by USC in triple overtime, hence my sporting the colors 6k miles away.
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