### CHARTRES, DIOCESE OF
Diocese and city in the department of Eure-et-Loir (France), with an area of 5,869 sq. km and a population of 252,690, of whom 250,000 are Catholic. It comprises four archpriestships: Chartres, Châteaudun, Dreux, and Nogent-le-Rotrou, and 25 deaneries forming 377 parishes served by 331 diocesan priests and 36 regular clergy. The major seminary is also located here.
A catalogue of the bishops of Chartres is contained in an 11th-century manuscript from the Abbey of La Trinité in Vendôme, which ends with Bishop Agnieto (1048–60). Little is known of the first two bishops, Adventus and Optatus, while the third, Valentinus, is recorded at Chartres in the year 395. Among its bishops are St Leobinus, who attended the Council of Paris in 532, Fulbert (1007–20), and Ivo (1090–1116). Throughout the Middle Ages, Chartres had very renowned schools (A. Clerval, *Les écoles de C. au moyen âge du Vᵉ au XVIᵉ siècle*, Chartres 1895).
Originally, the diocese encompassed the entire *civitas Carnutensis* and was one of the largest in France, including the present diocese of Blois, which was detached by Innocent XII in 1697, and a large part of the diocese of Versailles, from which it became dependent in 1802; it regained its autonomy in 1821. Chartres belonged to the province of Sens until 1622, when the province of Paris was established.
With a brief dated 29 January 1908, Pius X elevated the renowned cathedral of Chartres, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the status of a minor basilica, and on 19 November 1917, Benedict XV granted the see of Chartres the privilege of the sacred pallium.
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### ART
The principal artistic monument of the city is the cathedral of Notre-Dame, one of the most famous in France and the most distinguished and complete monument of 12th-century sculpture in northern France.
Of the great Carolingian structure, destroyed by fire in 1020, only the crypt remains, which forms part of the present one. The church was rebuilt under Bishop Fulbert (d. 1028) as a three-aisled basilica with an enormous crypt and was consecrated in 1037. Subsequently, after the fire of the old façade in 1134, the three western portals, the narthex, and the two northern and southern towers were constructed (c. 1135–60). This building also burned in 1194, but Fulbert’s crypt and the western façade with its two towers survived. Despite this second fire, work continued, and by 1198 the new choir was already consecrated in rich, mature Gothic style with seven radiating chapels; around 1210 the transept was completed (its portals c. 1230), and by c. 1220 the vaulting of the nave; the entire structure was consecrated in 1260 in the presence of St Louis. The church now presents a three-aisled cruciform plan with seven bays.
The sculpture follows chronologically the progress of the architecture. The most “archaic” sculptural cycle of the cathedral is that of the western portal, the so-called *Portail Royal*, from the mid-12th century. It was executed by several masters, some of whom came from St-Denis and also worked at Étampes. This is followed by the rich sculptural decoration of the northern façade of the transept (first and second quarters of the 13th century) and that of the southern façade of the transept (c. 1220–40), both of great importance for the development of Gothic sculpture in general and for its profound influence on French sculpture in particular. The style that had been foreshadowed in the Royal Portal of St-Denis (c. 1145) is here fully developed for the first time and further enriched in the transept sculptures, particularly in the new type of triple portal, adorned with antithetical scenes from the Old and New Testaments (apostles–prophets, the elders of the Apocalypse and the predecessors of Christ); lunettes depict the blessing Christ, the Ascension of Christ, the glorification of Mary, and the symbols of the Evangelists, among other subjects.
Equally important for its richness and preservation is the series of stained-glass windows. The earliest date to the 12th century, with a strong nucleus from c. 1210 to 1260; others are from the 15th century. They add to the monumental grandeur of the architecture and the beauty of the cathedral’s sculpture the mysticism of deep, transparent, pure colors.
In comparison with the cathedral, other churches of Chartres are of lesser importance, among which may be listed: St-Brice, with Romanesque capitals from the 11th century; St-Père-en-Vallée, rebuilt after a fire in 1134 c. 1150, modified in the nave (c. 1215–30) and in the choir (13th–14th centuries); St Andrew, in Romanesque-Gothic style; St-Aignan, in Gothic-Renaissance style. — *See* Pl. LXXXV.
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