Chartres cathedral : the royal portal

There will be no screening on Monday, September 15. The evening will be devoted to technical tests and setting up the new stage design, “Blue, Mirror of Men and the Sky.” We thank you for your understanding.

The royal portal hosts two scenographies, "Nave of Light and Chartres" and "Chartres, from yesterday to tomorrow". These shows retrace respectively the history of the cathedral through its builders and the history of the city from Autricum to today. On Saturday, September 20, a new scenography will be unveiled.

The scenographies

New : BLEU - mirror of Man and Heaven - Starting Saturday, September 20

Prévisualisation de la scénographie "Bleu" - portail royal de la cathédrale

A new light show will be unveiled on the royal portal of the cathedral on Saturday, September 20, starting at 9 p.m., during European Heritage Days and as part of the millennium celebrations for the founding of Chartres Cathedral. It will be projected alternately with the current light show, Nef de lumière (Nave of Light). Artistic intentions: Blue is not a color. It is a sensation, a memory, a wave. It is the original water and the eternal stained glass window. It is the rocking sea and the watching sky. It is the blood of a king, the trace of a painter, the breath of God, the silence of a dream. BLEU is a visual and sensory journey through eight monumental tableaux projected onto the majestic western façade of Chartres Cathedral. A unique, immersive show in which the architecture comes to life, transforms, and breathes. Water flows from the stones, whales swim through the nave, pigments merge into living masterpieces, blue flashes redraw the arches and columns. From the origins of the world to the lines of the future, BLEU immerses us in a luminous fresco where each fragment of light tells of the invisible, the divine, the absolute. A visual hymn to beauty, life, and peace.

This scenography was created by M2 EVENT.

« Nave of light... »

Since the first Frankish kingdoms, go back in history to witness the development of science, literature, music ... So much new knowledge that fed an era and its monuments, as evidenced by the architecture of the cathedral. Accompany the builders in their extreme work. Piece by piece, towers, columns and stained glass windows are assembled to go ever higher. In a playful and mischievous vision, watch these fabulous artists give life to this vessel of stone and glass. It is ready to reach the sky! It is a tribute to these builders that the Spectaculars restore. These workers of another age who allow us to contemplate the Notre-Dame Cathedral even today. Timeless and eternal, it watches over Chartres.

Artistic design : Spectaculaires, allumeurs d’images – Franck Marty and Benoît Quero.

Chartres, from yesterday to tomorrow - until Friday, September 19

Discover the history of Chartres in the company of the Angel on the dial, who, like a master of time, takes you through the centuries. Before your eyes, watch the fields of Beauce, the Gallic antiquity with the forest of Carnutes and its legends, the time of Fulbert and the Enlightenment, the Hundred Years War, the coronation of Henri IV in 1594, the Revolution, the modern times and the industrial revolution, the Second World War, the Resistance and Jean Moulin, and finally the development of the Cosmetic Valley and current innovations The cathedral has watched over Chartres for hundreds of years and remains a witness to the eras that have followed.

Artistic design : Spectaculaires, allumeurs d’images – Franck Marty and Benoît Quero.

Genesis of a scenography

How is a scenography of Chartres en lumières created? Meet the Spectaculaires scenographers who created the scenography "Chartres from yesterday to tomorrow", projected on the royal portal of the cathedral

A little history

The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres is one of the largest in France and one of the first French sites to be listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. Since its first construction, 5 versions followed one another, until the cathedral we know today, which dates from the 13th century. An accidental fire in 1836 destroyed the old wooden frame. The entirely rebuilt roof in cast iron with a copper covering is now one of its particularities. Chartres Cathedral also has the richest and most complete collection of ancient stained glass windows in the world with 172 windows spread over 2600m2.