Holy Chartres

There are other churches and museums throughout the town of Chartres, France, the main attraction for tourists visiting the medieval town is La Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, a huge Gothic structure that has been a place of coronations and worshipping for the past nine Centuries. Although many of the members of our high school French club toured the town of Chartres during our short stay, the main reason for this short pitstop on the way to our Loire Valley home base was to see the Cathedral, and it was well-worth our time.

Churches in Europe were very important places of its towns. It was a place to do business, socialize, and worship. Notre Dame de Chartres was no exception, but it took several decades for the present Notre Dame de Chartres to be built. The original cathedral was built on its present-day site in in the 9th century and burned down in a fire in 1134. The residents of Chartres were desperate for a new church and 11 years after the fire, plans for a new, bigger, and Gothic cathedral were put into motion. A tunic that is supposed to have belonged to the Virgin Mary was housed in the old Cathedral and many people thought it had been destroyed in the fire but it miraculously survived.

Construction on the new cathedral didn't begin until 1195 and building the cathedral took 66 years to complete. Mother Nature had something to say about the construction of Notre Dame de Chartres and a lightning strike in June 1194 caused a fire that destroyed much of the town and the western front of the cathedral. Fire and other natural disasters didn't stop the residents of Chartres from completing their dream church, and La Cathedral Notre Dame de Chartres was finally finished in 1260 and dedicated by the French crown on 24 October 1260.

Shaped in the form of a cross, the Nave of Notre Dame de Chartres is 92-feet long, and there are three large rose stained windows on the western front of the cathedral, the north of the building, and in the southern part of the Cathedral. The stained glass windows date from the 13th Century and have been through several wars throughout the last 750 years. The most recent time the windows went through war was from World War II when Chartres suffered through the four-year German occupation. Many of the windows were taken down by the residents of Chartres and hidden in a nearby town to prevent the windows from being destroyed during several bombings that occurred on French soil.

Some of our more braver group members were able to climb up one of the towers of Notre Dame de Chartres and look out into the main square and town of Chartres. We waved to some of our classmates and chaperones once we got up there and enjoyed the view of Chartres before heading down to shop for souvenirs and enjoy the town before leaving for Tours about a couple of hours later.

Admissions to the Cathedral are free but donations are accepted and photography is allowed. Due to having a crappy camera in 1985, only four of my photos came out and are good enough to include in this journal entry, but the one with the Western Front Rose Window came out suitable for enlarging.

In April 1985, my high school French Club took a weeklong trip to France that included three days in the Loire Valley (Valloire in French) and Normandy sandwiched between four days in Paris. Our homebase in the Loire Valley was in the city of Tours, but before we arrived at our hotel in Tours, we took a short day trip to the quaint and Gothic city of Chartres, 60 miles southwest of Paris on the Eure River.

Our busload of eager and hungry students enjoyed a quick pitstop in Vendome to walk around that city and take a potty and food break, and some of us stopped in a little bakery that offered us many scrumptious pastries that had us getting fat just looking at them. Armed with pastries and other refreshments, our busload was ready to conquer Chartres which had suffered through many other conquests by Normans and other foreign armies. So our 1985 invasion of 33 students, teachers, and chaperones from East Providence, Rhode Island was miniscule compared to almost 1,000 years of raping and pillaging.

Chartres's history dates from Roman times when it was known as the city of Carnutes. After the Romans, the Normans burned Chartres in 858 and then unsuccessfully tried to sieze the city in 911. After the Normans, Chartres went under the control of several dukes and their families before being sold to the French Crown in 1286 and became a duchy under the reign of Francois I in 1517. From 1417-1432, Chartres endured English occupation followed by invasion by the Protestants during the 1568 War of Religions. After Henri IV retook Chartres from the Protestants in 1591, he was crowned King of France in Chartres in 1594. The Germans invaded Chartres twice during the 19th and 20th Centuries. The first invasion of Chartres occured in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War and became a military center for the Germans for the duration of the war.

The second German invasion happened in 1940 when the Germans invaded France and occupied Chartres from 1940-1944. Chartres suffered from much damage from bombings and shelling during the German invasion and subsequent American liberation of France in 1944. Chartres is known as the birthplace of Jean Moulin, who was the leader of the French Resistance during WWII and was captured in Lyons by the infamous Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie and was tortured by Barbie before dying of his wounds on a train taking him to a Nazi concentration camp in Germany.

Chartres is world-famous for its 12th Century Gothic Cathedral Notre Dame de Chartres, and the cathedral dominates the skyline and landscape of the city of Chartres. Surrounding the Cathedral are several little shops, restaurants, and museums. Several of us students enjoyed browzing around the little shops buying souvenirs for family back home in Rhode Island after touring Notre Dame de Chartres.

The best time to visit Chartres is between October and April when it isn't crowded with tourists and busses. You can get to Chartres by car, bus, or train, and it's a very short ride from Paris and well-worth your time when you visit France.