Europe Day 6: Chartres

Today I met a British Man.  He reminded  me very much of Michael Caine, the butler in the Dark Knight.  He came to France a long time ago as a student.  He has spent the last 54 years wandering around Chartres, showing people the Cathedral.

After spending two hours with him, I am convinced I would be content to do the same.

Chartres is a Cathedral that, most recently, has been standing since the 13th century.  The one I went to today was the fourth or fifth that had been constructed on that site.

Origionally, it was not a very important parish. Then, someone-I forget who-donated a piece of cloth 15 feet long that may have been worn by Mother Mary. When the idea of relics took flight, Chartres became a major destination for pilgrims on their way to Portugual, where they could see more relics.

In the late 12th century the church burned down.  Three days after the fire, a pair of monks emerged from the building, carrying the cloth.  Bishop Fulbert believed it must be a miracle and sent letters far and wide telling of what happened!  My British tour guide called this "fundraising."

In less than half a century, the magnificent cathedral was rebuilt!  All kinds of people helped.  Blanche, the Regent of France, paid for the North Rose Window, and Richard the Lion Heart paid for another.  Groups of wine merchants paid for windows, carpenters paid for a window, bakers paid for windowsl; with 150 beautiful stain glass windows, the list goes on and on!

I was particularly enchanted by the windows, after my British guide explained a bit more about how they work.  First, every window that was donated by a group features something along the bottom about that group.  For example, the wine merchant window has a wine merchant walking his donkey that is pulling a cart with a barrel of wine on it.  The shoe makers window has pictures of men making shoes etc.  But that is only a small part of the over all beauty.

Each window is like a commentary on a story in the bible read through pictures, from the bottom up.  Some times the stories are written in pairs, and sometimes they are alone.  Each has their own unique meaning.  I cannot help but wonder about who designed these windows.  They were created back before paper was even used in Europe, and almost no one could read or write.  Therefore, these windows were all people had to learn about the bible. Why was each story chosen?  How did they decide the clearest way to display each story with such limited space?  More than anything, I long to feel the passion that drove the window makers to spend hours on every window, painstakingly cutting the glass and adhering them together in the exact correct shapes. Did they charge much?  Or was it more an act of devotion to God? 

To make the story even more interesting in the 1940s,when World War Two was on the rise, the bishop at this Cathedral had all of the windows taken down and put into wooden crates.  Then, when invansion by the Germans seemed imminent, gathered over one hundred volutneers to carry the crates to the train station where they were delivered to the Chateau in Paris for safe keeping.  When the worst was on the rise, the people helped the church.  How amazing.

Outside of the church are thousands and thousands of sculptures embellishing the frams of nine different doors.  Many of these, unfortunately, are missing their heads and other protrusions.  During the revolution, the Cathedral was seen in a negative light-a symbol of Papal authority and waste (I think)-and was therefore vandalised.  Even so, I was continually amazed by the obvious effort that was put into creating such a beautiful place of worship.

Even after a two hour tour, and times spent in the underground crypte, I could have continued to walk in and around Chartres for hours.  It is so beautiful and has such rich history behind it.  This building is hundreds of years old!  So many people have walked in and out and around.  But it is not so rooted in the past that the present is obsolete.  In the crypte there can be found among the historical peices, two modern stain glass windows.  One of which was donated with in the memory of our guide!  The Cathedral is continuing to grow and change, and I am absolutely amazed by it.

I do dearly wish to return in five or six years.  The alter and chapel holding the relic were closed off because it was being cleaned.  The French government is in charge of maintaining the chapel, and it will take five to six years before they will have managed to get the whole thing washed and re-painted. We could see a portion that had already been finished, and it was stunning!  "Gothic," in this day and age, often denotes dark and dreary, but the origional intent of architecture in this era was to be tall, bright, and colorful.  I dearly wish to see Chartres at its best!

One final not; I had creme brulee for dessert after lunch.  For some reason, I anticipated a warm dessert, but it is not.  There was indeed a burnt sugar layer on top of the pudding, which I did not necessarily enjoy.  even so, it was a delicious dessert.  This is such a good life.