Chartres Cathedral

Rebuilt in a single generation after the fire of 1194, Chartres preserves its original sculpture and almost all its thirteenth-century glass, including the blue that no one has convincingly reproduced. The floor labyrinth, 261 metres of path in a thirteen-metre circle, is uncovered on Fridays in the pilgrimage season. The Sancta Camisa, venerated as the tunic Mary wore at the Nativity, survived the 1194 fire and made the cathedral's reputation.