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.
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.
The portal of St Firmin opens into the north aisle of Amiens Cathedral. The tympanum shows the discovery of his remains outside the city, and their transport to the cathedral.
The tympanum of St Stephen ⓘ at Bourges cathedral was constructed by 1240, and is above one of the five portals at the west end of the cathedral. The tympanum is made up of three sections. The lowest section depicts Stephen being made one of the seven deacons of the early church. Above that is his martyrdom, and on top of all is an image of Christ as Salvator Mundi.
The southern most portal on the western façade of Bourges Cathedral is dedicated to St Ursinus (or Ursin), a 3rd century figure, the first Bishop of Bourges.
