Chartres Cathedral

The church of Saint-Aignan owes its name to the bishop of Orléans around 400, when a pre-Romanesque church already stood there, later replaced by other buildings which were burnt down in the 11th century and again in 1262. The crypt, well lit by windows overlooking the Rue Saint-Pierre below, dates from the end of the 15th century, but the present building dates from the early 16th century. The turret on the left dates from the 16th and 17th centuries. The church of Saint-Aignan was the parish of the counts of Blois and Chartres.

The chapel of Notre-Dame de la Brèche (Our lady of the breach) was built in 1599, after the Protestants in 1568, during the second war of religion: a breach having been opened in the city walls by the artillery of Louis de Bourbon-Condé, the Chartrains, under the protection of a statue of Notre-Dame de la Porte Drouaise, built and defended a barricade which prevented the capture of the city. The chapel was rebuilt in 1843 to serve the parish of the lower town, the neighbouring Saint-André church having been disused during the Revolution.

The church of St Pierre and St Paul de Chauffours appears unusual, with its two contiguous roofs, its porch and its small spire that overhangs the roof. This atypical church, which brings together several architectural styles ranging from Romanesque to Renaissance style, was under the dependence of the chapter of Notre-Dame de Chartres.