The crypt

Saint Lubin crypt

Beneath the choir, the Saint Lubin crypt is the oldest. Its walls, on which the apse pillars rest, are over 2.50 metres thick, giving the impression of rock-solid solidity.

A staircase connects this crypt to the choir: it was undoubtedly through this passage that the Virgin’s Veil was lowered during the fire of 1194 – an episode from which it emerged unscathed and which left a lasting impression.

There’s also the entrance to an archaeological excavation corridor, which over a hundred years ago uncovered the walls of the Carolingian cathedral (9th century?).

Two parallel galleries, some 5 metres wide, are built in a primitive style, typical of “pre-Romanesque” techniques. Punctuated by flat pilasters, these immense galleries, undoubtedly designed for processions, are built of irregular stones, embedded in mortar and covered with plaster. It was decided to cover them with groin vaults: an archaic solution based on the intersection of two semicircular vaults.

North side: Notre-Dame de Sous-Terre

On the north side, the Notre-Dame de Sous-Terre chapel remains one of the cathedral’s liveliest places of prayer.

The statue we see today dates back to 1976. However, it is a faithful copy of a medieval statue that was burnt in the Middle Ages and was highly venerated. It was around this moving wooden sculpture that the legend of the ‘Virgin to give birth’ crystallized in the late Middle Ages: the idea that Gallic priests had miraculously begun to pray to Mary – even before the birth of Christ.

The reliquary of the Virgin’s Veil (circa 1820) houses a fragment of this precious fabric – a larger part of which can be seen in the upper cathedral.

The altar, a massive block of stone from Berchères, is the one that lives most intensely: over 800 masses a year, celebrated by priests from many different countries.

Nearby, the Saints-Forts well, over 35 metres deep, dates back to Gallic or Gallo-Roman times (around year 0). Its square base leads to a pre-water table. Associated in the Middle Ages with the martyrdom of the region’s first Christians, it was blocked up and rediscovered in 1901.

South side: St. John the Baptist gallery

On the south side, this gallery houses the baptismal area, which was refurbished in 2006 (lighting, solid oak benches) to continue the age-old tradition of celebrating the sacrament of baptism. The stone basin, surrounded by columns with acanthus capitals, dates from the early 12th century.

Fulbert’s crypt and its mural paintings

Fulbert’s crypt features murals from several periods.

In the chapel of St. Clement (south), stylistic clues date the paintings to the late 11th century. Under arcades, we see Pope St. Clement (right), the apostle James (center – with the word Jacobus), whose cloak is decorated with shells, probably St. Peter, and bishops Martin and Nicholas (whose names are also preserved). On the left, St. Gilles celebrates mass before a kneeling Charlemagne, alluding to a well-known miracle in which Charlemagne sees his (grave) sins erased, inscribed on a banner.

Above, small fighting figures and animals are reminiscent of the Bayeux ‘tapestry’ style. On the left wall, we see motifs imitating oriental fabrics: lions surrounded by embroidered circles.

In the Notre-Dame de Sous-Terre chapel, a Virgin in Majesty, ‘throne of wisdom’ (circa 1200) was rediscovered around 1975. In a figuration strongly marked by Byzantine influence, Christ opens his arms. Three more subdued figures probably evoke the Magi.

In the same chapel, the vaults, blackened by the soot of old oil lamps, were painted in the 17th century, at a time when this place was frequented by kings (Louis XIII, Louis XIV) and the great French saints (Saint John-Baptiste de la Salle, Saint Vincent-de-Paul, Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort…).

Elsewhere (e.g. in the Saint Jean-Baptiste gallery) neo-Romanesque murals dating from 1860-1900 recall important events in the history of Notre-Dame de Chartres.

A remarkable collection of contemporary stained glass

But you can also admire a remarkable collection of contemporary stained glass windows, which continue the cathedral’s tradition of using other forms of artistic expression.

In the radiating chapels, the overview begins with the three windows of the Sainte Marie-Madeleine chapel. The stained-glass windows by the Lorin workshops (1860-1861) are dedicated to the Crucifixion, the Immaculate Conception and the great figures of St. Louis, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The work is meticulous ‘painting on glass’.

In the stained glass windows of the chapel of Saint Fulbert, the glassmaker Gabriel Loire designed two art deco creations in 1928 (with borders strewn with roses and stars) that recall the work of this great Chartres bishop: builder of the cathedral (left) and teacher in Chartres schools (right).

The three stained-glass windows in the axial chapel of Saint Jean-Baptiste, designed by Father Alain Marie Couturier (1937-39), a leading figure in the revival of sacred art who maintained an active correspondence with the great artists of his day, are at the crossroads of Fauvist and Cubist influences. They depict Saint John the Baptist, Saint Louis and Saint Joan of Arc.

The stained glass windows in the Saint Clément and Saint Joseph chapels, like those in the large side galleries, are by Simone Flandrin (1975). These abstract, pearly-colored windows sometimes feature the shape of a cross.

In the Chapel of Saint Yves, the two windows (2006) by Korean cleric Kim En Joong reveal a spontaneous, calligraphic gesture. The pure colors express the emotions of prayer.

A wall of light, created by Udo Zembok (2006), delimits the baptismal space. Contemporary thermoformed glass techniques are used to animate the surface of the glass. The dark (purplish) colors gradually give way, as they rise, to effects of transparency: the passage from Earth to Heaven, from anguish to the encounter with the divine.

‘Marie Porte du Ciel’, in the Notre-Dame de Sous-Terre chapel, is the latest work by glass artist Henri Guérin. Here, we discover the technique of glass slabs (cut pieces of glass mounted in a cement structure), which wonderfully plays on the choice of colors and shards to suggest the call of the beyond.