Chartres is a city known primarily from the magnificent cathedral, which is considered one of the most valuable works of French Gothic. In addition to it, you can also see many beautiful medieval and Renaissance tenements and churches.
The first traces of settlement in the place of today's city come from Celtic times. There was a strong Druid center here, in the place of which in the third century Christian missionaries erected the chapel of Our Lady. She was the beginning of the later Romanesque cathedral, which was consumed by fire in the 12th century.
In 1260, construction of the cathedral in Chartres was completed, which was rebuilt several times after the destruction and has survived to this day. Sometimes called because of its rich decorations, the Bible in stone is one of the most outstanding architectural works of the Middle Ages in France. It has been on the UNESCO list since 1979.
Despite the destruction of World War II, a lot of medieval and Renaissance buildings have survived in Chartres. You can also see the Romanesque-Gothic churches of St. Peter and St. Andrew. The city also has the Stained Glass Museum, whose inspiration and base were the antique stained glass windows from the local cathedral and the Museum of Fine Arts.
In Chartres, you can also see several contemporary attractions. One of them are murals covering the walls of houses in the government housing estate. A group of artists performed an unusual work called Fresques de Bel-Air, under which the walls were covered with illusionist, three-dimensional paintings. House Picassiette is also a curiosity of the city, entirely clad with pieces of glass arranged in paintings.
