ecimen. The steep, narrow streets of the old town contrast
with the wide, shady boulevards which encircle it and divide it from the
suburbs. The Clos St Jean, a pleasant park, lies to the north-west, and
squares and open spaces are numerous. The cathedral of Notre-Dame (see
ARCHITECTURE: _Romanesque and Gothic Architecture in France_; and
CATHEDRAL), one of the finest Gothic churches in France, was founded in
the 11th century by Bishop Fulbert on the site of an earlier church
destroyed by fire. In 1194 another conflagration laid waste the new
building then hardly completed; but clergy and people set zealously to
work, and the main part of the present structure was finished by 1240.
Though there have been numerous minor additions and alterations since
that time, the general character of the cathedral is unimpaired. The
upper woodwork was consumed by fire in 1836, but the rest of the
building was saved. The statuary of the lateral portals, the stained
glass of the 13th century, and the choir-screen of the Renaissance are
all unique from the artistic standpoint. The cathedral is also renowned
for the beauty and perfect proportions of its western towers. That to
the south, the Clocher Vieux (351 ft. high), dates from the 13th
century; its upper portion is lower and less rich in design than that of
the Clocher Neuf (377 ft.), which was not completed till the 16th
century. In length the cathedral measures 440 ft., its choir measures
150 ft. across, and the height of the vaulting is 121 ft. The abbey
church of St Pierre, dating chiefly from the 13th century, contains,
besides some fine stained glass, twelve representations of the apostles
in enamel, executed about 1547 by Leonard Limosin. Of the other churches
of Chartres the chief are St Aignan (13th, 16th and 17th centuries) and
St Martin-au-Val (12th century). The hotel de ville, a building of the
17th century, containing a museum and library, an older hotel de ville
of the 13th century, and several medieval and Renaissance houses, are of
interest. There is a statue of General F.S. Marceau-Desgraviers (b.
1769), a native of the town.

The town is the seat of a bishop, a prefecture, a court of assizes, and
has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce,
training colleges, a lycee for boys, a communal college for girls, and a
branch of the Bank of France. Its trade is carried on chiefly on
market-days, when the peasants of the Beauce bring their crops a