Ludvig14, CC BY-SAVisiting Chartres Cathedral: entry, tower and what to see
Entry to Chartres Cathedral is free. You pay only for extras: the Treasury, the climb to the heights and guided tours, sold by two separate organizations.
In short
- Entering the cathedral is free, every day of the year. You pay only for the extras.
- The CMN sells the Treasury, the heights tour and its own cathedral tour on its official ticketing site.
- The cathedral’s public tours and videoguides are bought at the shop inside, never online, about 15 minutes before the tour.
- The labyrinth is open for walking on Fridays from Lent, except on Good Friday.
- Luggage is refused under the Vigipirate plan. You can leave it at the Rectorate, 16 Cloître Notre-Dame.
- Trains from Paris-Montparnasse take about an hour, then about ten minutes on foot to the cathedral.
- 2,500 m²of stained glass
- 16.40 mwidth of the nave, the widest in France
- 200steps up to the heights, about 40 m high
- 1194the fire after which most of the cathedral was rebuilt
Don't miss
The Royal Portal
The oldest of the three sculpted portals, from around 1150: look at the statue-columns with their rigid bearing and hint of a smile.
Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrière
“The Blue Virgin”, in the first bay of the choir after the south transept. Its upper part dates from around 1180.
The west façade windows
The oldest glass in the cathedral, where the lighter “Chartres blue” appears.
The labyrinth
A single path laid in the nave floor in the early 1200s, centered on the same point as the west rose window when the façade is projected onto the floor.
The tour du chœur
The sculpted screen around the choir, nearly two centuries in the making, with scenes from the story of Mary and Jesus.
Notre-Dame de Chartres Cathedral tickets: how to get them
Sold by tickets.monuments-nationaux.fr, at the official price.
| Ticket | Adult |
|---|---|
| Visite libre du Trésor de la cathédrale de ChartresStandard entry | Price on the official site |
| Visite commentée de la cathédraleGuided tour | €7 |
| Visite commentée des hauteursGuided tour | €7 |
| Visite commentée du Trésor de la cathédrale de ChartresGuided tour | €7 |
Free entry (2026)
- On specific days
- Under 18s
- Under 26s from the EU
- Visitors with disability and one companion
Which ticket is right for you?
You only want to see the cathedral
No ticket needed
Entry is free, every day of the year.
You want the Treasury at your own pace
Visite libre du Trésor de la cathédrale de Chartres
The self-guided entry is limited to 15 people every 30 minutes, with a visit document in French and English.
You want to go up onto the roofs
Visite commentée des hauteurs
A CMN guided tour along the north transept and into part of the north tower.
You want a guided tour in English
Public tour of the Reception and Visits Service
Sold at the shop inside the cathedral, never online, from May to the end of September.
You want a commentary at your own pace
Videoguide
It comes in seven languages (French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Japanese) and leads you through 19 points of interest at your own pace.
Your visit, step by step
West front, outside
The Royal Portal
Begin with the statue-columns of the oldest portal before you go in.
West façade, inside
The oldest windows
The three windows of the west façade, the oldest, where the lighter “Chartres blue” appears.
Choir, first bay after the south transept
The Blue Virgin
Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrière, “The Blue Virgin”, in the first bay of the choir after the south transept. Its upper part dates from around 1180.
Throughout the cathedral
The rest of the glass
The rest of the collection, completed in under 30 years around 1200 to 1225, where the blue is darker and set against strong reds.
Throughout the cathedral
The rose windows
The three large rose windows, whose colors shift with the light through the day.
Free to enter, two ticket desks for the extras
Entry to Notre-Dame de Chartres is free, and the cathedral is open every day of the year. The cathedral’s own website sums it up in one line: access to the cathedral is free, only guided tours are charged.
| What | Who sells it | How you get a ticket |
|---|---|---|
| The cathedral itself | Nobody | No ticket needed |
| Public guided tours and videoguides | The cathedral’s Notre-Dame Reception and Visits Service | At the shop inside the cathedral. No online booking |
| The Treasury, self-guided or with a guide | Centre des monuments nationaux (CMN) | CMN ticket |
| Guided tour of the heights | CMN | CMN ticket |
| Guided tour of the cathedral | CMN | CMN ticket |
The confusion comes from the extras, because two different organizations sell them.
The CMN sells its tickets on its official ticketing site, and the cathedral website points to the CMN for the towers. The cathedral’s own tours cannot be bought online.
The free admission conditions shown on this page (under-18s, under-26s from the EU and EEA, disabled visitors and the person accompanying them, the European Heritage Days) are CMN rules, not the cathedral’s, since the cathedral is free for everyone anyway. The CMN grants them on presentation of the required proof, listed in the checklist below. It also says some visits carry specific conditions, notably guided tours, so check the ticket page of the visit you want.
The cathedral’s own tours and videoguides, bought on the spot
The public tours of the Reception and Visits Service cannot be booked. You buy the ticket at the shop inside the cathedral, on the left as you enter under the north tower, about 15 minutes before the scheduled time. What to know about them:
- Public tours in English run from May to the end of September, Tuesdays through Saturdays, never during a religious celebration, and meet at the information sign inside the cathedral.
- The individuals page lists the cathedral visit “without booking” as limited to 45 people.
- The cathedral’s other public tours are in French, and a private tour in English can be requested by email or phone.
The videoguide is the other option, rented at the same shop. The full guide takes about 2 hours. Groups of 10 or more must use them.
Avoid this mistake
Masses shape the visit. Visitors may not circulate in the nave and transepts while masses and celebrations are taking place, and guided tours and videoguide rental are not permitted during Masses.
The Treasury and the heights, on the CMN side
The Treasury occupies the Saint-Piat chapel, built in the 14th century at the foot of the cathedral, on two storeys.
Good to know
If the cathedral has to close for an official ceremony or bad weather, e-tickets bought on the CMN site are refunded automatically.
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The CMN describes it as a small museum of about 150 works and precious objects, comprising liturgical silverware, textiles and votive offerings, and also housing two ensembles of medieval sculpture from the Royal Portal and the 13th-century rood screen. The CMN also runs a guided tour of the Treasury.
The heights tour climbs the 200 steps of a spiral staircase to about 40 meters. You walk along the north transept to look at the flying buttresses from the roof, enter part of the north tower and cross the great roof space with its metal frame. That frame dates from after June 1836, when a fire destroyed the lead roof and the wooden structure nicknamed “the forest”. A metal frame was chosen to resist fire, and the new copper roof turned green as it oxidized. Before you book it:
- The tour is from age 7.
- The CMN advises against it if you suffer from vertigo.
- Strollers are not allowed on it.
The CMN’s guided tour of the cathedral is in French only and may be cancelled because of ceremonies. Languages are worth checking for the other CMN tours too: the practical page says its guided visits are in French only, while the heights tour page lists sessions in English.
Reading the windows and the Royal Portal
The cathedral you see went up fast, behind an older front:
- Around 1150 The Royal Portal, the oldest of the three sculpted portals, dates from around 1150.
- 10 June 1194 A fire on 10 June 1194 left only the crypt and the west façade standing.
- 1194 to 1220 Most of the cathedral was built between 1194 and 1220.
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The rebuilding made it one of the first great Gothic cathedrals. The builders used flying buttresses here for the first time, which carried the weight outside and freed the walls for glass. Its nave, 16.40 meters wide, is the widest in France.
Start outside, at the Royal Portal on the west front. The cathedral’s website calls it the place where Gothic sculpture was born: statue-columns with a rigid bearing and a hint of a smile. The north portal has been restored, with its great prophets.
Inside, the stained glass covers 2,500 m² and holds more than 3,500 figures. The visit steps above take the windows from the oldest glass to the rose windows. The cathedral’s website suggests “reading” one or two of the stories in the windows.
Walking the labyrinth on a Friday
The labyrinth, laid in the nave floor in the early 1200s, is a single path rather than a maze.
It is open for walking on Fridays, starting at Lent, and the nave chairs are removed for it. The cathedral’s two pages that give the end of the season do not agree, so check the labyrinth page on its website for the closing date.
The rules for walking it:
- It is closed all day on Good Friday and may be closed for religious celebrations.
- The cathedral asks you to walk it with shoes on, at a regular pace, without stopping, and never as a game.
If you project the west façade onto the floor, the center of the rose window falls on the center of the labyrinth.
The choir screen and the crypt
The choir is enclosed by a sculpted screen, the tour du chœur, which took almost two centuries to complete, from 1516 to 1714. Its scenes tell the story of Mary and Jesus. The Reception and Visits Service offers a commented reading of it, in French only.
Under your feet lies the crypt of Bishop Fulbert’s cathedral, begun in 1020: more than 200 meters long, it is the largest crypt in France. The cathedral states that access to the crypt is reserved for prayer and pilgrimages, and gives the Visits Service number to plan a pilgrimage.
By ramp, by train from Paris
What you can bring and what to wear are in the checklist below.
For wheelchair users, a ramp leads in at the Royal Portal, and the whole ground floor (nave, transepts, aisles and ambulatory) is accessible. A wheelchair can be requested ahead of your visit.
Trains from Paris-Montparnasse take about an hour each way, and the cathedral is about ten minutes on foot from the station, in the pedestrian historic center. The nearest car park is Châtelet, by the cathedral.
Opening hours
| Period | Days | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| 7 October to 31 December | Every day | 8:30 am to 7:30 pm last entry 7:15 pm |
Before you go
- For CMN free admission, bring an identity document with a photograph (under-18s and under-26s) or a valid foreign equivalent of the French Mobility Inclusion card.
- Proper and decent dress is required: no see-through clothing or beachwear, and men remove hats and caps.
- You cannot bring luggage in, because of the Vigipirate security plan, but you can leave it at the Rectorate, 16 Cloître Notre-Dame. Large backpacks, bicycles and scooters are not allowed either.
- Food and drink stay outside. Strollers are fine inside the cathedral.
- You may photograph or film for personal use.
Accessibility
- Wheelchair loan
- Yes, on site
Map and nearby sights
Frequently asked questions
Is Chartres Cathedral free to visit?
Yes, entry is free and the cathedral opens every day of the year. Only the extras are paid: the Treasury, the heights tour and the guided tours.
Can I book a guided tour of Chartres Cathedral in English?
The cathedral’s public tours in English cannot be booked: you buy the ticket at the shop inside, on the left under the north tower, about 15 minutes before. They run from May to the end of September, Tuesdays through Saturdays, and a private tour in English can be requested by email or phone.
How many steps are there to the top of Chartres Cathedral?
The heights tour climbs 200 steps of a spiral staircase to about 40 meters. It is from age 7, strollers are not allowed, and the CMN advises against it if you suffer from vertigo.
When can you walk the Chartres labyrinth?
On Fridays, starting at Lent, when the nave chairs are removed. It is closed all day on Good Friday and may be closed for religious celebrations. The cathedral’s labyrinth page gives the closing date of the season.
Can I bring a suitcase into Chartres Cathedral?
No. Luggage is not allowed because of the Vigipirate security plan, and neither are large backpacks, but you can leave your bags at the Rectorate, 16 Cloître Notre-Dame.
How do I get to Chartres Cathedral from Paris?
Take a train from Paris-Montparnasse, about an hour each way. The cathedral is about ten minutes on foot from the station, in the pedestrian historic center.
Sources
- cathedrale-chartres.org official 4 pages
- chartres-cathedrale.fr official 6 pages
- tickets.monuments-nationaux.fr official 4 pages
- Wikimedia Commons
- Wikipedia
- wikidata.org
Facts last checked on 26 October 2026. Prices and opening hours change, often in January: confirm on the official website before you go.