From July 9 to August 27, on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, the cathedral is open continuously until 10:00 pm…
(public access until 9:45 pm)

From 7.30pm, free admission.
Later, from 8:00 pm (see our agenda), there are three original proposals for rediscovering this exceptional site: the SOIRÉES AUTREMENT.

The initiative, launched in 2007, is designed to share with as many people as possible the different ‘facets’ of this exceptional site – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has been enthusiastically received by local players and visiting guests alike. They were impressed by the quality of the speakers, but even more so by the general atmosphere of the evenings.

Soirées de la cathédraleSoirées autrement‘ is part of a global renewal of cultural events, based on alternative proposals designed to bring major heritage sites to life. The challenge is to offer quality services that are closely and faithfully linked to the history, spirit and profound potential of the cathedral. Far from the ‘museum’ spirit. Just as far from the ‘theater’ spirit.

The principle we’ve chosen is based on authentic spiritual traditions, reviving prayer vigils and ‘mystery’ performances…

It responds to the profound demands of our contemporaries. Many visitors are looking for ‘off-beat’ times, with direct, communicative contact with the artists and curators, time to feel the spirit of the place more intuitively, original ways of exploring the site, different opening hours and different themes…

What were the objectives of the rector, the priest who assigns the building, who initiated the project?

• To offer everyone the opportunity to experience moments of immense beauty, such as can be experienced when entering the building on a summer’s evening.
• Enter into a partnership with the local tourist industry, which is rightly seeking to ‘retain’ visitors to Chartres – thus escaping from a logic of just-in-time flow between Paris and the Loire Valley.
• Favoring times that are more conducive to the contemplation of the faithful, notably when tour operators have already left and the site is once again in a state of calm…

 

Original idea Soirées Autrement / Creation Vitraux grand format: Gilles Fresson
Artistic Direction ‘Du Silence à la musique’: Nicolas Lhoste

Each evening is ‘oriented’ in this way: more interiorized on Tuesday, more visual on Friday, more auditory on Sunday. The proposals are as many openings. The aim is to maintain, with as sensitive a technical and artistic choice as possible, a dynamic for which the cathedral alone is the ‘bearer’.

 

 

 

Starting July 9

Soirées Autrement

Walk the Labyrinth path

Evening events

Musical moments