File:Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (1913) (14595706127).jpg

Identifier: montsaintmichel00adam (find matches)
Title: Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Adams, Henry, 1838-1918 American Institute of Architects Cram, Ralph Adams, 1863-1942
Subjects: Cathédrale de Chartres Middle Ages Le Mont-Saint-Michel (France)
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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est. Yetnine persons out of ten — perhaps ninety-nine in a hundred — whocome within sight of the two spires of Chartres will think it a jest ifthey are told that the smaller of the two, the simpler, the one thatimpresses them least, is the one which they are expected to recognizeas the most perfect piece of architecture in the world. Perhaps theFrench critics might deny that they make any such absolute claim;in that case you can ask them what their exact claim is; it will alwaysbe high enough to astonish the tourist. Astonished or not, w^e have got to take this southern spire of theChartres Cathedral as the object of serious study, and before taking itas art, must take it as history. The foundations of this tower —always to be known as the old tower — are supposed to have beenlaid in 1091, before the first crusade. The fleche was probably half acentury later (1145-70). The foundations of the new tower, opposite,were laid not before mo, when also the portal which stands between
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CHARTRES CATHEDRAL THE ^T.W YORKPUBLIC UBIURY AS-lOU, LCNOX ANDTILKEN l-<ir-:i)ATIilNS TOWERS AND PORTALS 63 them, was begun with the three lancet windows above it, but not therose. For convenience, this old fagade — including the portal and thetwo towers, but not the fleches, and the three lancet windows, but notthe rose — may be dated as complete about 1150. Originally the whole portal — the three doors and the three lancets— stood nearly forty feet back, on the line of the interior foundation,or rear wall of the towers. This arrangement threw the towers forward,free on three sides, as at Poitiers, and gave room for a parvis, beforethe portal, — a porch, roofed over, to protect the pilgrims who alwaysstopped there to pray before entering the church. When the churchwas rebuilt after the great fire of 1194, and the architect was requiredto enlarge the interior, the old portal and lancets were moved bodilyforward, to be flush with the front walls of the two towers, as you

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