Exterior of Case Studies 2, Chatres Cathedral!

Hola guys~~~~ It has been a week since I last posted so here i am again! On the previous post of mine, I've started mentioning about my first case study which is the remarkable Taj Mahal. I roughly talked about its background and the exterior and I'm going to do the same today but with a completely different case study which is... *drum rolls* the Chartres Cathedral!

Chartres Cathedral is also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, it's considered as the finest monument of Gothic architectures (Lewis, 2008). Chartres Cathedral is famous for having the most astonishing medieval stained glass in the world and for its quality of religious stone carving sculpture (Lewis,2008). Extraordinary harmony between the medieval stained glass, religious sculpture and architecture makes it the pilgrimage destination for many. It's a great mix on adding religious element into architecture. Plus point! It's in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site (French Moments, 2012).

(Pierre, 2013)

The asymmetrical spires (also known as the North and South tower) on either side of the facade catches my attention. Churches were usually designed in Gothic style back then. They look different from each other because there was a fire that burned down almost everything in the town and part of Chartres Cathedral. Current facade of Chartres Cathedral was built immediately after the fire, starting with the North Tower then the South Tower, 300+ years of gap in between the construction of the towers and it shows the evolution of architecture style and way of constructing (Lewis, 2008).

Towers with different appearance, one is rather pointy, has very strong Gothic vibes and less decorative while the other one looks rather spectacular and more decorative + taller too!

(Clement, 2015)

Take into a closer look, you'll see the royal portal.

(Chartres Cathedral North Facade, 2015)

These three portals are the oldest portal of Chartres Cathedral, it's surrounded and decorated by sculptures (French Moments, 2012). These sculptures on the respective portals depict Christ's Earthly life, Last Judgement and Ascension of Christ (From right to left).

Moving on, from the exterior of Chartres Cathedral, you'll see the flying buttresses. The reason of having it is to keep church from getting damaged by fire again, people who were in charge decided to use stone roof rather than a wooden one, for the sake of fire resistance. But stone roof was way too heavy so the builders decided to use four-part vault for roof instead of the commonly-used six-part vault. To further more distribute the weight of stained glasses and heavy and high roof, the builder decided to use flying buttresses, which act as a support on the outsides of Chartres Cathedral (Lewis, 2008).

Flying buttresses outside of Chartres Cathedral.

(Entrena, 2012)

In my opinion, the use of flying buttresses last time was brilliant. It created support for the high vault (commonly seen in Gothic architecture) and medieval stained glass which depicts the Christ. Moving on, the differences on the appearance of north and south tower seriously shown us the evolution of architecture at a glance. The south tower was more plain and austere while the north tower was decorative and looked a lot more stunning and eye-catching. It proves us that decorative elements do actually do a great job on grabbing one's attention. Looking at the sacred interior architecture industry these days, it actually leans toward modern style which is rather clean and sleek, people don't use much ornaments in this generation. The obvious contrast on interior and architecture between now and last time is very apparent. It makes me wonder if the reaction when we look at an ancient old religious building with stunning ornaments and how the coming generation going to look at our clean and less ornament religious buildings right now will it be the same? Still as breath-taking or not?

That's it from me today! I hope you guys enjoyed, have a great day ahead! xoxo


References :

French Moments. (2012). Chartres Cathedral - French Moments. [online] Available at: http://frenchmoments.eu/chartres-cathedral/ [Accessed 12 Jun. 2016].

Lewis, M. (2008). Architectura. Hauppauge, N.Y.: Barrons Educational Series.

Image Sources :

Chartres Cathedral North Facade. (2015). [image] Available at: http://pulalohome.com/chartres-cathedral-north-facade/ [Accessed 12 Jun. 2016].

Clement, M. (2015). Chartres Part III. [image] Available at: http://michaelclementphotography.blogspot.my/2015/07/chartres-part-iii.html [Accessed 12 Jun. 2016].

Entrena, C. (2012). la catedral y los edificios civiles. [image] Available at: http://historiadelartecbe.blogspot.my/2012/01/la-catedral-y-los-edificios-civiles.html [Accessed 12 Jun. 2016].

Pierre, (2013). Façade of Chartres Cathedral. [image] Available at: http://frenchmoments.eu/chartres-cathedral/screen-shot-2013-01-13-at-11-22-25-am/ [Accessed 12 Jun. 2016].