The Cathedral of Notre-Dame at Sées, in Normandy, is the seat of the Diocese of Séez and a significant example of French Gothic architecture in the former duchy of Normandy. The present structure was largely built between the 13th and 14th centuries, replacing earlier Romanesque buildings.
The cathedral’s west façade is characterised by its twin slender towers and deep Gothic portal, framed by pointed archivolts and sculptural decoration.
Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 for the coherence of its plan, and the beauty of its three-tier interior elevation Notre-Dame d'Amiens, is the tallest completed Gothic church and largest cathedral in France. The Romanesque cathedral had been destroyed by fire in 1218, and Bishop Evrard de Fouilly employed Robert de Luzarches as the architect to build the new cathedral in the Gothic style to house the head of John the Baptist ⓘ which had been bought back as a relic by Wallon de Sarton returning from Constantinople in 1206 after the 4th crusade.
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.
This two-light stained glass window, dated 1949, presents a modern devotional image of Notre-Dame de la Blanche, conceived in the years immediately following the Second World War. Designed by Gaston de Bodard and executed by the Orléans master-glazier Louis Gouffault, the window unites traditional Marian iconography with a meditation on conflict, protection, and historical continuity.
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.
Fom about 1420, the figures on the right are thought to be Louis II of Chalon, count of Saint Aignan, his mother, and his second wife Jeanne de Perellos.
Renaissance-era stained glass window depicting the Pieta, created by the master glass painter Bertin Duval ⓘ in 1530 and installed in the choir of Notre-Dame Church in Alençon
Polychriome reliefs telling the story of St James the Greater, and the conversion of Philetus and Hermogenes. Amiens Cathedral 1511.
Quatrefoils dated 1278-1300, retelling Biblical stories carved around the Portail des Libraires of Rouen Cathedral.
