On Midsummer's Day (June 21), if the sunlight is strong, a ray of light will strike a certain whitened flagstone at exactly midday. A curious visitor, in the right place at the right time, would of course ask why? Why is there a space in the window for this ray to come through? Why was a special flagstone chosen and why was it placed in this particular location in the cathedral?
Louis Charpentier, a French historian, has written a fascinating book exploring the mysteries of Chartres cathedral. He takes the strange phenomenon of the illuminated stone as his starting point for exploring the unexplained. His discussion and explanation of these mysteries take the reader through a mixture of fact, legend and speculation. Whichever way you take his ideas, they pose some fascinating questions about who built Chartres Cathedral and why.
