[bright string music]
- Rick Steves: These huge caverns of stone
needed to be decorated,
and they were filled with the most glorious art
of the Gothic world.
Towering altar pieces, inspiring statues,
and the triumph of Gothic: exquisite stained glass.
Sainte-Chapelle in Paris is a fine example.
In typical Gothic style, the church is a skeleton of support,
with buttressed columns, ribs,
and pointed arches supporting the stone roof
and freeing the walls to be window frames.
In this case,
to hold Europe's best original 13th century glass.
In the Bible, it's clear: Light is divine.
And with Gothic, light pours through stained glass,
turning dark stone buildings into colorful lanterns of light.
[monks chanting] Chartres Cathedral is beloved
for both its stained glass and statues,
which together weave a unified Christian story.
In the Book of Chartres, as some nickname the church,
the text is the sculpture and windows
and its binding is the architecture.
The nave is vast,
lit by magnificent, 800-year-old stained glass.
The light pouring through these windows was mystical
and encouraged meditation and prayer.
The stained glass was used to help teach Bible stories
to the illiterate faithful,
and it gave worshippers images to focus on as they prayed.
Windows can be read from bottom to top,
as if from Earth to Heaven.
The brilliant color is from minerals mixed into the glass
as it's made, such as cobalt for the dazzling blue.
The windows lead the reader through a series
of dramatic scenes.
For example, the Last Supper.
Jesus washing his disciples' feet.
His betrayal with the kiss of Judas.
And the crucifixion.
The amazing thing in the 21st century,
Chartres is perfectly intact
and can be read like a book today,
as it was eight centuries ago.
In England, the York Minster brilliantly shows
that the late Middle Ages were far from dark.
This window's the size of a tennis court.
The intricacy of the stone framing, or tracery,
and how the tiny panes of glass are held together by lead
is exquisite.
The fine details, far too tiny to see from the floor,
are said to be for God's eyes only.
[monks chanting]