The present Chartres Cathedral in France was built between 1194 and 1260, following a devastating fire that destroyed the Romanesque cathedral on the site. This masterpiece of High Gothic architecture is notable for its remarkable speed of construction and its virtually unchanged appearance. Chartres is particularly famous for its extensive collection of original stained glass windows, which have survived intact.

Chartres Cathedral has been the subject of countless poems in French and English, from medieval devotional verse to the ecstatic meditations of the English poet Charles Péguy, who wrote extensively about its spiritual significance. The cathedral's windows and labyrinth have inspired modern poets such as W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot, who saw in its architectural harmony a model for poetic form and an emblem of medieval faith in a secular age.