Chartres Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral in Chartres, France, about 80 kilometers southwest of Paris, and the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, it was built mostly between 1194 and 1220, on the site of at least five earlier cathedrals that had occupied the site since the Diocese of Chartres was formed as an episcopal see in the fourth century. It is one of the best known and most influential examples of High Gothic and Classic Gothic architecture, built above earlier Romanesque foundations, with its north spire, added more recently in 1507 to 1513, in the more ornate Flamboyant style.
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Renowned for the largest surviving collection of medieval stained glass anywhere, most of it original to the 13th century.
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