Designated a World heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979 the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres was built from between 1145 and 1250. It's high nave is spanned by ogival pointed arches to form the vault, and the walls are supported by double flying buttresses. Chartres is the first building to have used buttresses as a structural element.
Chartres Cathedral is also unique in having retained almost all of its original 12th and 13th century stained glass.
In form and iconography, the statue is closely modelled on the celebrated “Golden Virgin” commissioned by the Bishop of Clermont in 946, a cult image that was destroyed during the Revolution when it was melted down for coinage. On stylistic and material grounds, the Orcival Virgin is now dated to c. 1170, making it a later but faithful reinterpretation of the earlier episcopal image.
Pope Adrian IV, born Nicholas Breakspear in Hertfordshire, was the only Englishman ever to become pope. Elected in 1154, his pontificate unfolded during a period of intense negotiation between papal and imperial authority in Italy and the wider Latin Church.
Following the death of Pope Adrian IV ⓘ, Rolando of Siena was elected pope as Alexander III on 7 September 1159. His election immediately plunged the Church into schism: on the same day, Cardinal Ottaviano de' Monticelli was proclaimed antipope Victor IV. Each excommunicated the other, but Victor’s authority was confined largely to territories controlled by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I ⓘ, whose support transformed the schism into a prolonged contest between papal independence and imperial power.
Pope Innocent III (Lotario dei Conti di Segni) was pope from 1198 until his death in 1216 and is widely regarded as the most powerful pontiff of the Middle Ages. His reign represented the high point of papal claims to universal authority, grounded in canon law, theology, and the assertion that the pope stood above all secular rulers as vicarius Christi.
The portal of St Anne on the right of the western façade was built in 1200 and is the earliest of the three portals to be built. The tympanum ⓘ is actually dated to about 1150 and was once part of the earlier cathedral of St. Stephen ⓘ whose western façade was once 40 metres to the west of the present Cathedral.
This shrine, shaped like a miniature Gothic church, was originally conceived to house the relics of Saint Vindicianus ⓘ, an early bishop of Cambrai–Arras and a key figure in the Christian history of Artois. Its architectural form, precious materials, and central rock-crystal window, allowing the relics to be seen, proclaim its function as a prestige reliquary and focal point of local devotion.
Tomb of Richard I of England ⓘ (d1199). This is one of three tombs to Richard I, this one is said to contain his heart, his entrails were buried in Châlus (where he died), and the rest of his body was buried at the feet of his father, Henry II, at Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou.
Richard I of England, known as Richard the Lionheart, was one of the most famous warrior-kings of the Middle Ages. Born in 1157, the third son of Henry II of England ⓘ and Eleanor of Aquitaine ⓘ, he became king in 1189 and ruled until his death in 1199.
Robert Curthose ⓘ (d1134) effigy, of painted Irish bog oak, was made about 100 years after his death.
