Hi, I was born in a town called Chartres and I wanted to tell you about the building of many churches that occurred here. The people of this time are very religious people, along with me, which made me really excited to see all the things they were doing. We have a statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus, with the "Sacred Tunic" which we believe to be our protector. There was a reason that we needed to be protected, because there was so much warfare and fire which demolished many of our buildings, that the church needed to be the building of our protection. The first church built on the foundation began in the eighth century and there were many that followed. Well, fire after fire destroyed our churches and town which made it very frustrating when our homes and building were gone time after time.

With the disaster most of the churches were destroyed along with many of the homes in a devastating fire. In 1145 we began to build again but a fire destroyed everything but the west front of the cathedral later in the building in 1194. The people of our community were so upset about the fires that we wondered if we should rebuild what we had already begun to rebuild or not. Once we found the sacred relic of Mary we took it as a sign to build the most amazing cathedral yet. So immediately in 1194, the people of Chartres all worked together to build the cathedral again, adding onto the only remnants of the old church which was the west front, and then dedicated it to Mary. It was amazing to see everyone working towards the rebuilding of the cathedral.

We decided to have two spires that were very different by leaving one as a pyramid shape from the 1140's at 349 feet and the other was made into a 16th-century Flamboyant spire at 377 feet. I really liked their idea of two different spires because it made our church very unique. One thing I thought was really interesting was that because of the massive weight of the high windows, we had to use flying buttresses. The flying buttresses gave the weight support from the outside of the building. Much was done to the building to instill a Christian belief along with everyday life.

At the west front of the cathedral, Christ's Incarnation, his Ascension, and the Apocalypse is portrayed on the wall showing the unity of Christ's entry, his departure, and the end of time. Also, fourteen figures portray the twelve apostles of Christ and twenty-four Elders and Angels.

Since the church was dedicated to Mary, the circular window on the west front depicts a rose which is the symbol we use to identify Mary. In addition to the structure, stained glass windows were used to further the beauty of the Cathedral of Chartres. When it was complete in 1220, the cathedral was 112 feet high and 427 feet long and we were all so excited about the new church that was built fairly quick in our loving and now protected community.