Chartres Cathedral: Story of a Masterpiece

Some 80 kilometers from Paris stands Chartres Cathedral, a building that’s over 800 years old and the secrets of which are only starting to be unveiled by today’s experts. It’s a medieval superstructure, one of the first Gothic cathedrals in history, wider and taller than Notre-Dame de Paris. At the time it was erected, it was the highest building in the world after the Pyramids.

In Chartres, everything is out of the ordinary: The dimensions, for one, but also the speed of construction. How could such a colossal undertaking be completed in less than 30 years? What technical revolution allowed Chartres to have such huge stained-glass windows, forcing Notre-Dame de Paris to make bigger ones? And how, after a fire, was the gigantic frame replaced by a metallic structure 40 years prior to the construction of the Eiffel Tower?

Thanks to ultra-realistic computer-generated imagery and interviews with architecture specialists, you’re about to discover all the secrets of Chartres, an unparalleled cathedral that has achieved one architectural feat after another for almost a thousand years, and which still attracts over a million and a half visitors annually.

Genre: History, Documentary, Culture

Duration: 52mins

Languages: English, French

Rights: Inflight & Transportation – Worldwide excl France

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