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 inhabitants, of whom 250,000 are Catholics; it comprises four archpriesthoods (C., Châteaudun, Dreux and Nogent-le-Rotrou) and 25 deaneries forming 377 parishes with 331 diocesan priests and 36 regulars in the major seminary.
A catalogue of the bishops of C. is contained in an 11th-century manuscript of the Trinity of Vendôme which stops at Bishop Agniero (1048-60). Nothing is known of the first two bishops, Adventus and Ottatus, while the third, Valentinus, is remembered at C. in the year 395. Among its bishops are remembered St. Leobinus, who assisted at the council of Paris in the year 552, Fulbert (1007-99), Ivo (1090-1116). Throughout the Middle Ages C. had very renowned schools (A. Clerval, Les écoles de C. au moyen âge du Vᵉ au XVIᵉ siècle, Chartres 1895). The diocese originally contained the whole civitas Carnutensis, and became one of the largest in all of France, comprising the present diocese of Blois, which was detached from it by Innocent XII in 1697, and a great part of the diocese of Versailles, on which it depended in 1802; it regained its autonomy in 1821. C. was part of the province of Sens until 1622, the date of the creation of the province of Paris.
By a brief dated 29 Jan. 1908, Pius X raised the distinguished cathedral of C., dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Assumed, to a minor basilica, and Benedict XV, by a decree dated 19 Nov. 1917, granted to the see of C. the privilege of the sacred pallium.
Bibliography3 works
Elia Griffe
ART
The city's principal artistic monument 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 construction, destroyed in a fire in 1020, the crypt still remains, forming part of today's crypt. The church was rebuilt, under Bishop Fulbert (d. 1028), as a basilica with three naves, with an enormous crypt, and consecrated in 1037. Subsequently (ca. 1135-60), after the fire of the old façade in 1134, the three western portals, the narthex, and, in front of the façade, the two towers, northern and southern, were built. But this building too caught fire in 1194; Fulbert's crypt and the western façade with the two towers were saved. Nevertheless this second fire did not prevent the work from being continued, and already in 1198 the new choir was consecrated, in a rich mature Gothic style with seven radiating chapels; around 1210 the transept was finished (around 1230 its portals); around 1220 the vault of the central nave, and in 1260 the consecration of the whole took place, in the presence of St. Louis. The church now presents three naves in the form of a cross, with seven bays.
The sculpture follows chronologically the progress of the architecture. The most "archaic" plastic cycle of the Cathedral is that of the western portal, the so-called portail royal, of the mid-12th century. It is by several masters who came in part from St-Denis and also worked at Etampes. There follows the very rich plastic decoration with figures and reliefs of the northern façade of the transept (first and second quarter of the 13th century), and that of the southern façade of the transept (ca. 1220-40), both important for the development of Gothic sculpture in general and for the great influence exercised on French sculpture in particular. The style that was foreshadowed in the Porte Royale of St-Denis (ca. 1145) develops, in that of Chartres, fully for the first time, and is further enriched in the sculptures of the transept, in particular the new type of triple portal, figured with antitheses of scenes from the Old and New Testaments (apostles-prophets, elders of the Apocalypse and predecessors of Christ); lunettes with Christ blessing, Ascension of Christ, glorification of Mary, symbols of the Evangelists, etc.
Equally important for its richness and preservation is the series of stained-glass windows. The oldest date back to the 12th century, a strong core can be dated from 1210 to ca. 1260; others are from the 15th century. They add to the monumental grandeur of the architecture and the beauty of the Cathedral's sculptures the mysticism of deep and transparent pure colors.
In comparison with the Cathedral, other churches of Chartres are of lesser importance, among which should be listed: St-Brice, with Romanesque capitals of the 11th century; St-Père-en-Vallée, rebuilt, after a fire of 1134, around 1150, modified in the nave (ca. 1215-30), in the choir (13th-14th centuries); St. Andrew's, in Romanesque-Gothic style; St-Aignan, in Gothic-Renaissance style. - See Tnv. LXXXV.
Bibliography34 works
Bernardo Degenhart