In the old Beauceron city, the cathedral is celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of its crypt and the reopening to the public of the Saint-Piat chapel, where the "treasure" is on display. According to Mgr Philippe Christory, Bishop of Chartres, this is not a museum of beautiful stones, but 1,000 years of faith and devotion. He has just decreed a jubilee year running from 8 September 2024, the day of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, to 15 August 2025, the feast of the Assumption.
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) stands like a lighthouse in the heart of the Beauce region. The first cathedral to be classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, it is celebrating the millennium of its foundations as well as the reopening of the restored Saint Piat chapel, which houses the treasures of the Gothic edifice. It was built in 40 years, a record since Notre-Dame de Paris took a century.
We can't help but think of Charles Péguy (1873-1914), who discovered Chartres in 1900. He walked 140 km to offer his heart to the Virgin. The pilgrimage to Chartres "in the footsteps of Péguy" was launched after the writer's death. Today, there are 440 pilgrimages to Chartres every year.
Other writers have marvelled at the cathedral: Paul Claudel, Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust, who is said to have borrowed the plan of his literary work from the architecture of the cathedral... And even lagnostic André Malraux to say, in front of the portal of the building, above the Christ blessing where Saint Louis passed, that there resides "this purest part of France"..
© Commons.
The portal on the west façade, known as the royal portal, opens onto the sacred. Tourists then enter the cathedral, and after a brief genuflection, wonder where to begin. Upstairs, the stained glass windows (2,600 m² in surface area) sparkle with colour. The oldest, famous for their luminous blue, date from the 12th century. Nicknamed Chartres blue, it is obtained by colouring the glass paste with cobalt oxide. The crypt is one of the longest in Europe, after St Peter's in Rome and Canterbury. It is known as the "vault of Saint-Lubin", the first bishop of Chartres, and is located just below the high altar of the present-day cathedral. Visitors become pilgrims once again, from the bottom to the top, from the crypt to the upper cathedral.
In the crypt : Notre-Dame de Sous-Terre
The crypt would be a huge lower church with barrel vaults and narrow windows. You can imagine the pilgrims wandering around and finishing their pilgrimage inside the cathedral itself... a long circular corridor, 200 metres from the door through which you descend on the north side to the one through which you can go up on the north-south side... to go from darkness to light to experience a real revelation, that is the meaning of this lower church.
In the crypt, the walls preserve a few frescoes from the Romanesque period. Pilgrims move forward and engage in a kind of introspection. The first part of this long corridor leads to the chapel of Notre-Dame de Sous-Terre. The statue of Notre-Dame is a modern one, dating from 1975. It looks a lot like the statue from the Middle Ages that disappeared during the French Revolution, which had the typical features of a Gallo-Roman mother-goddess. We may be going back to the very origins of the Marian cult in Chartres: people began praying to Mary even before she existed. Druids may have had a vision of this woman who was to give birth to the Saviour in a faraway land. It was a strange legend that allowed Chartres to claim that people had been Christians here even before Christianity.
The Virgin's veil
Let's jump back a few centuries to find the Virgin Mary in the 9th century. In Fulbert's crypt, in the chapel dedicated to Notre-Dame de Sous-Terre, we discover the precious Chartres relic: the Virgin's veil, formerly known as "Sancta Camisa ". This is thought to be the veil Mary wore when Christ was born. There are 2 fragments, the main one at the top, in the upper cathedral. This means that Mary can be prayed to on both levels of the cathedral. The relic was donated in 876 by Charles the Bald, Charlemagne's grandson. And it came from far away, from Byzantium, given to Charlemagne by the Emperor of the East. In the 18th century, the case was on. It was found to be a large piece of cloth, measuring 5.35 metres by 0.46 metres, the kind used by Middle Eastern women. Analyses carried out in the early 19th century concluded that this fabric was woven in the Middle East at the beginning of our era.
The well of the Saints-Forts (behind the altar of Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre) takes us back to the earliest origins of the cathedral, 2000 years ago or more. The well of the Saints-Forts, a strange name. Is it a reference to the first martyrs who were thrown into this well during the Roman persecutions?
It is said to date back to the year 0 or even, perhaps, to the 1st century BC, in the Gallo-Roman period according to Celtic tradition. There is talk of miraculous water and healing. The well was blocked up in the 17th century, then rediscovered around 1900 by an archaeologist: it is part of the history of the cathedral.
After the crypt and the dampness of the earth, it is time to move towards the light, towards the baptismal font, reminding the faithful of their baptism, which represents their entry into the Church. The pilgrim climbs the staircase to find himself in the nave, which symbolises the path of our life on earth, from birth in the narthex to the choir (at our death). Pilgrims encounter the difficulties of life in the labyrinth (in the middle of the nave), designed around 1200, made of Berchères stone with bands of black marble. Everything here refers to Greek mythology: Christ (Theseus) crosses the underworld (the labyrinth) to confront Satan (the Minotaur). He triumphs over the powers of death and offers his light to all those who wish to receive it. On the path of faith, the Ariadne's thread for the Christian to avoid getting lost and get out of the labyrinth, is to recite the " Miserere " to meet God. It is on this path of conversion that we meet Charles Péguy.
The Saint-Piat chapel: the cathedral's treasure
The word "treasure" conjures up dreams. You climb a staircase from the ambulatory in the cathedral choir and enter through an armoured door. You arrive in a chapel built in the 14th century, restored as if the stone had been cut yesterday. Visitors are greeted by the statue of the Virgin and Child. The cathedral's treasury includes 150 objects dedicated to worship: ex-voto items, reliquaries, gold and silver jewellery that escaped the smelting during the Revolution.
Among the rare pieces is a tabernacle from Saint-Aignan (1200-1220) decorated with Limoges enamel: it is the largest object in champlevé enamel from Limoges that has survived to this day. It dates from the early 13th century and was originally used as a repository for the Blessed Sacrament. It was donated to the cathedral by a canon in the 19th century and depicts the crucifixion of Jesus, between the Virgin Mary and Saint John. When the shutters are closed, the Pentecost scene appears: the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles.
The new tour of the Treasury Chapel reaches its climax with the 4 stained glass windows in the chapter house of the Chapelle Saint-Piat. The Korean artist Bang Hai Ja (1937-2022) reinterpreted Chartres blue, caressing this 14th-century Gothic jewel, which has been closed to the public for 23 years, with azure and cyan. The stained glass windows were made in the master glassworkers' workshop Peters (Paderborn, Germany).
Advice
The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chartres is hosting 3 exhibitions as part of the celebrations marking 1000 years since the founding of Chartres Cathedral. 1000 years of sculptures in Chartres, from 21/9/2024 to 16/2/2025.
- The sculpture exhibition highlights works never before exhibited in the museum, following a major restoration project,
- A second exhibition is devoted to manuscripts dating from the 12th and 13th centuries,
- A third pays tribute to the cathedral's famous labyrinth.
Christianity in Gothic majesty, stained glass windows in a state of blue, red and yellow, Chartres cathedral would be capable of converting an unbeliever, if not to faith then at least to the beauty of its sacred architecture. You can walk around the cathedral and then, century after century, through the surrounding streets. You'll end up at Place Billard, a stone's throw from the cathedral, where a flea market is held every 2nd Sunday of the month. The bargain hunter will be looking for Marco, known as the white wolf. He'll find interesting furniture, antiques, second-hand books.
www.museescentre.com
www.chartres-tourisme.com
The complete agenda linked to the millennium of the cathedral?s foundations:
https://www.chartres.fr/1000-ans
Text : Michèle Lasseur
