FRANCE: Chartres Cathedral
 

Our Lady of Chartres - Notre Dame de Chartres - is considered the finest example of Gothic architecture in Europe. Its soaring proportions, wealth of sculpture, and glorious stained glass are testament to the skills of medieval craftsmen. The cathedral stands over the ruins of a 4th century church which enshrined a fragment of the veil supposedly worn by the Virgin Mary and brought back from the Holy Land Crusades. As such it has been a sacred site since at least the 10th century and today pilgrims still walk the old road from Paris to Chartres (80km) as their ancestors once did. Dedicated in the presence of Louis IX in 1260, the cathedral pioneered the innovation of using flying buttresses for construction at great heights. In time its two distinctive spires were added together with the renowned stained-glass windows and the remarkable bas-reliefs adorning the exterior walls. As well as a place of worship, the building served as a market-place with farm produce being allocated pitches in the various portals - textiles in the north, foodstuffs in the south and so on. While forbidden in the crypt wine merchants were allowed to trade in the soaring - 37 metre high - nave. Today the town of Chartres is always crowded with religious groups who come to admire this awesome monument to Christian devotion and in particular the 152 magnificent Gothic windows depicting important events from the Bible. The cathedral was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979.