Gothic Cathedrals: Reaching for Light

Around 1140, Abbot Suger rebuilt the choir of the Abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris, filling it with stained glass and launching a new style later called Gothic. Builders combined pointed arches, ribbed vaults and external flying buttresses to carry weight outward, allowing thinner walls, greater height and huge windows. Suger believed light could lift the mind toward God.

Cathedrals such as Chartres and Notre-Dame de Paris, begun in 1163, became the tallest buildings in their towns and took generations to finish, funded by bishops, kings, guilds and townspeople. Stained-glass windows and sculpted portals taught biblical stories to a largely illiterate public and also reflected civic pride, as towns competed to build higher. The name 'Gothic' was originally an insult by Renaissance writers who considered the style barbaric, a reminder that artistic reputations change.