A Brief History
On October 24, 1260, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres was dedicated. Taking about 26 years to build, the great church is on the site of previous iterations of the cathedral, going as far back as the 4th Century and having additions to the beautiful edifice through the years, and in 1979 designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The cathedral draws visitors to see the relic called the Sancta Camisa, a tunic worn by Mary when Christ was born.
Digging Deeper
Religious buildings often receive the highest efforts of architects and artists of their day, not just Christian, and some of these most famous ones include
Hagia Sophia Mosque, of Istanbul has also been a Christian church that dates back to 537.
The Great Mosque of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, first built in 638 and improved many times since.
The Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, 691.
Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris, 1182.
St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, 1626.
Note: There are many other religious structures and churches of various sorts of great beauty and great fame all over the world, and we mean no disrespect by only being able to list these few. Most major cities have at least one famous or notable church building, and the religious significance of others, such as The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, or ancient structures such as Stonehenge, or the enormous Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the largest religious structure in the world. The author has been to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and The Dome of the Rock, as well as to the West Wall in Jerusalem.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Which of these magnificent churches have you visited?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Harasta, Jesse. Westminster Abbey: The History of England’s Most Famous Church. Charles River, Editors, 2014.
Jenkins, Simon. Cathedrals: Masterpieces of Architecture, Feats of Engineering, Icons of Faith. Rizzoli, 2022.
