page_title: Stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral
hierarchical_section_title: Stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Cathédrale de Chartres - Chevet - Vitrail de Charlemagne
context_page_description: The stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral are held to be one of the best-preserved and most complete set of medieval stained glass, notably celebrated for their colours, especially their cobalt blue. They cover 2600 square metres in total and consist of 172 bays illustrating biblical scenes, the lives of the saints and scenes from the life of trade guilds of the period.
  Some windows survive from an earlier Chartres Cathedral, such as the three lancets on the west front and the lancet south of the choir known as 'Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrière', famed for its Chartres blue. However, most of the windows were probably made between 1205 and 1240 for the present church, taking in the Fourth Crusade and the Albigensian Crusade, as well as the reigns of Philip II Augustus and Louis VIII, with the building's consecration finally occurring in 1260 under Louis IX.
  Some of the windows were made later, such as those in the Vendôme Chapel and some in the transepts, whilst some damaged 13th-century windows were restored from the 15th century onwards.
context_section_description: The stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral are held to be one of the best-preserved and most complete set of medieval stained glass, notably celebrated for their colours, especially their cobalt blue. They cover 2600 square metres in total and consist of 172 bays illustrating biblical scenes, the lives of the saints and scenes from the life of trade guilds of the period.
  Some windows survive from an earlier Chartres Cathedral, such as the three lancets on the west front (1145–1155, contemporary with those made for Abbot Suger at the Basilica of Saint-Denis) and the lancet south of the choir known as 'Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrière', famed for its Chartres blue (1180). However, most of the windows were probably made between 1205 and 1240 for the present church, taking in the Fourth Crusade (bringing a large number of important relics to Chartres) and the Albigensian Crusade, as well as the reigns of Philip II Augustus (1180–1223) and Louis VIII (1223–1226), with the building's consecration finally occurring in 1260 under Louis IX (1226–1270).
  Some of the windows were made later, such as those in the Vendôme Chapel (1400–1425) and some in the transepts (20th century), whilst some damaged 13th-century windows were restored from the 15th century onwards. The destruction of Reims Cathedral and its stained glass in 1914 caused shock across France and led to all Chartres' windows being taken out and stored throughout both world wars. Conservation and removal of pollution has been ongoing since 1972. Preliminary studies were carried out by the Laboratoire de recherche des monuments historiques.
caption: Life of Charlemagne (detail of bay 7)
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ50", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint Shop Pro Photo 12,01", "Image DateTime": "2010:08:12 23:04:25", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "234", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "878", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "18590", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "18/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:08:03 14:08:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:08:03 14:08:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "239/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2484", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2938", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "736", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "113", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}