Chartres Cathedral

Assembled from 48 blocks · 3 evidence · 52 related

1. Story
2. Notre-Dame de Chartres, rebuilt after the fire of 10 June 1194 destroyed most of the previous church while sparing the western towers, the Royal Portal and the crypt with its relic. The rebuilding was extraordinarily fast for a great church - the main structure was substantially complete within about a quarter of a century, and the building was consecrated in 1260 - and because it was built quickly by essentially one campaign it is unusually coherent. Chartres is where the mature High Gothic package appears together: a three-storey elevation that drops the tribune gallery, quadripartite rib vaults over rectangular bays at a high vault around 36-37 m, and flying buttresses designed with the building rather than added to rescue it. It retains an exceptional amount of its 12th- and 13th-century glass, which is the reason the interior is dark in a way that photographs of Gothic interiors rarely convey. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.
3. Knowledge
4. World Heritage Committee
5. The Gothic rib vault
6. The flying buttress
7. Chartres Cathedral
8. Connections
9. Basilica of Saint-Denis
10. World Heritage Committee
11. The flying buttress
12. The Gothic rib vault
13. Fire destroys most of Chartres Cathedral
14. The high vaults of Chartres close at about 36-37 m
15. Chartres is consecrated
16. Global Strategy for a Balanced, Representative and Credible World Heritage List (1994)
17. Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972)
18. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
19. ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites)
20. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)
21. The first properties are inscribed on the World Heritage List
22. Angkor inscribed on the World Heritage List and the danger list on the same day
23. The Committee adopts the Global Strategy for a Balanced, Representative and Credible World Heritage List
24. The cultural and natural criteria are merged into a single set of ten
25. Arabian Oryx Sanctuary deleted — the first site ever removed from the World Heritage List
26. Dresden Elbe Valley deleted — the second removal, by a vote of 14 to 5
27. Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City deleted — the third and most recent removal
28. The Committee declines, again, to place Venice on the danger list
29. Stonehenge
30. Hagia Sophia, Constantinople / Istanbul
31. Chartres Cathedral
32. The Gothic rib vault
33. Chartres Cathedral
34. Notre-Dame de Paris
35. Notre-Dame de Paris is begun
36. The high vaults of Chartres close at about 36-37 m
37. The voussoir arch
38. The flying buttress
39. Durham Cathedral
40. Chartres Cathedral
41. Durham roofs a great nave with ribbed vaults
42. Suger's choir at Saint-Denis is consecrated
43. The high vaults of Chartres close at about 36-37 m
44. Fire destroys the roof and spire of Notre-Dame de Paris
45. Evidence
46. Chartres Cathedral, rebuilt from 1194 after fire and substantially complete within a generation, is inscribed on the World Heritage List. V55 verification basis: whc.unesco.org is blocked by the environment egress proxy; inscription year and list reference number are stated from established record and must be confirmed.
47. Photoelastic model studies of Gothic structures arguing that wind loading on the high roof and clerestory, rather than vault thrust alone, was a principal design driver for flying buttresses, and that upper flyers are best explained as wind bracing. V55 verification basis: real and widely cited; not read in this session, and the argument is summarised here from its reception rather than from the text.
48. Reconstructs how Gothic vaults were actually erected, with centring, falsework and sequence as the central problem, and treats the economy of timber formwork as a driver of the rib vault. Supports the STRUCTURE_GOTHIC_VAULT and Gothic site records. V55 verification basis: real and standard, not consulted in this session.