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Built around 1200 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site that draws more than a million visitors and pilgrims each year, Chartres Cathedral is one of the jewels of Western Civilization. How Chartres Cathedral and its priceless stained glass (today the largest such collection in one location) survived World War II’s widespread destruction of cultural monuments is one of the great stories of recent history. Saving the Light at Chartres begins half a decade before World War II, when a young French architect developed a plan to save the cathedral’s precious stained glass. As war engulfed Europe in the fall of 1939, master glass artisans dismantled the hundreds of windows, and soldiers, tradesm...
Details one of the greatest Gothic buildings in the world, the Cathedral of Notre Dame at Chartres, France, exploring its history, its structure, and its glass artistry.
Reproduction of the original: The Story of Chartres by Cecil Headlam
In the twelfth century, Christians in Europe began to build a completely new kind of church - soaring, spacious monuments flooded with light from immense windows. These were the first Gothic churches, the crowning example of which was the cathedral of Chartres: a revolution in thought embodied in stone and glass, and a bridge between the ancient and modern worlds. In Universe of Stone, Philip Ball explains the genesis and development of the Gothic style. He argues that it signified a profound change in the social, intellectual and theological climate of Western Christendom. As the church represented nothing less than a vision of heaven on earth, this shift in architectural style marked the beginning of the argument between faith and reason which continues today, and of a scientific view of the world that threatened to dispense with God altogether.
Excerpt from The Story of Chartres At the head are two white bulls and the sacrificial priests, and in their train follow bards and novices chanting anthems, and a herald clad in white. The Druids follow. One of them is carrying bread, another a vase full of water, the third an ivory hand, the emblem of Justice. The high priest closes the procession, and about him cluster the other priests of the Oak and the chiefs of the local tribes. For the oak, Pliny tells us in his Natural History, is the Druid's sacred tree, and the mistletoe that grows thereon they regard as sent from Heaven and as the sign of a tree chosen by God. This golden bough of mistletoe, which they call all-heal, the high pri...
The author is the world's foremost authority on Chartres, and is in residence there most of the year. He shows us the history of the cathedral and teaches us how to "read" the world-famous stained glass and sculpture, explaining the references to Scripture and the teachings of the Church. Chartres alone, of all the great medieval churches, has survived into the 20th century almost intact, not only architecturally but with its vast inconographic program in 12th-and 13th-century stained glass and sculpture. Medieval art was intended not just to embellish the church but to instruct the people, for there was no printing. Scholars could therefore teach their students, the clergy preach sermons and parents read the lives of the saints to their children using the 'texts' in stained glass and sculpture. The sister churches of Chartres have been sadly vandalized to varying degrees by Reform, revolution, war or natural disaster. Here in Chartres the 'text' is virtually complete. A concise glossary of symbolic images has been included as well as a complete plan of all the windows in the cathedral, and an index.
"The cathedral at Chartres survived World War II thanks to the efforts of French citizens and an unrecognized American officer. In a book written in the spirit of The Monuments Men, Victor Pollak describes the efforts to save Chartres Cathedral"--
Chartres Cathedral and the Old Town
A beautiful, beguiling novel from the bestselling author of The Librarian and Grandmothers 'A lovely book . . . wise at heart and filled with colourful characters' Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat A compelling story of darkness and light, of traumatic loss and second chances, The Cleaner of Chartres tells of the mysterious and elusive Agnes Morel whose little acts of kindness around a rural French cathedral touch the lives of others with consequences both good and ill. But when her tragic past is exposed, Agnes must face up to the truth of her origins. 'Salley Vickers sees with a clear eye and writes with a light hand and she knows how the world works. She's a presence worth cherishing' Philip Pullman 'A rich weave of loss and redemption . . . magic and mystery' Observer, Book of the Year
Journey to the world's most enigmatic and magical destinations with this charming guide, full of folklore, unworldly mysteries and far-flung fairy tale locales.