The choir

The choir of Saint-Gatien Cathedral is one of the finest achievements of Rayonnant Gothic. It is the jewel of the cathedral.
Built between 1220 and 1270, it looks like a giant reliquary, worthy of the Sainte-Chapelle, with its 15 glazed windows. Perfectly harmonious, it shows no flaw and no later alteration.

The originality of the choir lies in the great architectural unity of its two levels, where “the upper windows find their perfect continuation in the arcading of the triforium, establishing a new relationship between stained-glass and architecture. Tours may be the first example of such an arrangement” (Louis Grodecki).

Visitors are struck by the elegance of the work, especially since its restoration, which brought back its original decoration. After eight years of work, in 2002 the vaults regained their original ochre colour and the stained-glass windows their 13th-century legibility and brilliance.

With its original decoration restored, the choir of Saint-Gatien Cathedral has thus recovered all its medieval purity.