Chartres Cathedral

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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.