An exceptional place
Listed as a World Heritage Site, one of the most popular tourist destinations in France, an emblematic monument of religious art that one never stops discovering: an architecture of light that will be the model for the great Gothic cathedrals, an exceptional collection of stained glass windows from the 12th and 13th centuries – the largest in the world, three large sculpted portals that open to the ‘thought of the Middle Ages that has become visible’.
An exceptional place, because of the building, the history, the homogeneity, the stained glass windows, but also for its unique place in Marian sanctuaries.
In fact, even though the Virgin Mary never appeared there, she is truly present:
– materially, through her veil, exposed to the fervour of pilgrims, parishioners and visitors,
– but above all spiritually, for she leads her children towards the Light of God, like a beacon; she accompanies them at every age, from life to be born to death.
Mary constantly tells us: “Do whatever He tells you”; she presents us with the mystery of the Incarnation.
This cathedral, at the same time the seat of the bishop and “Gateway to Heaven”, parish, sanctuary and historic monument, a world heritage site, is a link between man and God, through its spires that raise the head and thoughts, but also through its transept, symbol par excellence of the Incarnation, a meeting of horizontality and verticality.
The Cathedral allows us to discover how much faith gives access to Beauty and how much the experience of Beauty can facilitate the reception of faith.
These messages have been transcribed in stone, glass, iron and wood by builders and artists for 1000 years; they are timeless and concern more than ever our contemporaries, in search of meaning?
