Some windows at Chartres Cathedral survive from an earlier Cathedral, such as the three lancets on the west front (1145–1155, contemporary with those made for Abbot Suger at the Basilica of Saint-Denis) and the lancet south of the choir known as 'Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrière', famed for its Chartres blue (1180). However, most of the windows were probably made between 1205 and 1240 for the present church. That is well within the Templar period.
The blue stained glass windows were coloured using a mineral known as cobalt oxide. The blue pigment "Cobalt blue" is made by sintering cobalt(II)oxide with aluminium(III)oxide (alumina) at 1200 °C. Cobalt blue is extremely stable, and has historically been used worldwide as a colouring agent in ceramics jewelry and paint.
For instance, cobalt has been detected in Egyptian sculpture. Blue glass from Egypt was either coloured with copper, iron, or cobalt. The oldest cobalt-coloured glass is from the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (1550–1292 BC). Cobalt has also been used in Persian jewelry from the third millennium BC, in the ruins of Pompeii, destroyed in 79 AD, and in China, dating from the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD) and the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 AD). Cobalt has been used to colour glass since the Bronze Age. The excavation of the Uluburun shipwreck yielded an ingot of blue glass, cast during the 14th century BC.
A description of glass production in the Middle Ages and the proportion of raw materials (two parts of beech ash from a tree trunk and one part of sand) is provided in a work by Theophilus Presbyter (1070-1125). This is the pseudonymous author or compiler of a Latin text containing detailed descriptions of various medieval arts, a text commonly known as the Schedula diversarum artium ("List of various arts") or De diversis artibus ("On various arts"), probably first compiled between 1100 and 1120.
While the exact provenance of the cobalt used in the 12th and 13th centuries in France remains somewhat uncertain, historical sources and scientific analyses suggest several possible origins. While France does have some mineral deposits, there is little direct evidence that cobalt was mined locally. Most likely, raw materials were imported from regions with known cobalt sources. These include the following locations.
Saxony (Germany), especially the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) in present-day Germany and Bohemia the Czech Republic were historically known for cobalt deposits. These mines were actively worked during the medieval period and later became major suppliers of cobalt for glassmaking and ceramics.
The mining regions of Hungary (modern Slovakia) were also known for their metal ores, including cobalt-bearing minerals. These regions had active medieval trade routes supplying raw materials to Western Europe.
Finally cobalt-based blue pigments were known in Mesopotamia and Persia since antiquity. It is possible that some cobalt reached France through Mediterranean trade routes, particularly via Venice, which had strong commercial ties to the Islamic world.
In the West the medieval glassmaking technique, probably made available (again) by above mentioned Theophilus Presbyter, was first applied in the 1140s during the construction of the Basilica of Saint-Denis. After that it was also applied in Chartres Cathedral and elsewhere.
Some people believe that the making process of blue colour from the medieval stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral was kept very secret, and the secret vanished and afterwards no one was able to re-create the famous Chartres-blue. Interesting story, very romantic, but simply not true. In fact, there are enough ancient "recipes" for making stained glass which survived until today. Problem with medieval recipes is that their terminology is confusing. Like, for example, the idea that "sapphire" was added in making stained glass, when this was also the latinized name for "saffer", which was the name of cobalt oxide. But modern glass makers are fully capable of recreating the" mysterious" or "lost" Chartres-blue.
It has also been suggested, such as in "The Templar Meridians" by William F. Mann, that the Templars were involved in providing the knowledge and even the minerals for making the stained glass windows of Chartres cathedral. They allegedly derived the cobalt oxide from Nova Scotia. This ties into broader theories about the Templars' exploration and exploitation of resources in North America, suggesting a deeper, hidden history beyond what is conventionally known about their activities in Europe and the Middle East. Many mainstream historians and archaeologists remain skeptical of these theories, often citing a lack of concrete evidence to support them. As to Chartres, a Nova Scotia link is impossible because, according to The Templar Meridians, the Templar trip to Nova Scotia would have taken place in 1398, so over a century after the making of Chartres Cathedral and its original windows. Knowldge or minerals from Nova Scotiua would have arrived well after the making of the Chartres windows.
To conclude, the process for making blue glass windows of Chartres was well known at the onset of the 12th century and even before that, and the necessary mineral resource was readily available in Europe and the Middle East. So the Templars were no key factor. More in general, there is no proof of any significant contribution of the Templars to the building of Chartres Cathedral as such, contrary to the popular narrative.
This blog is original work by TN, combining information and occasional quotes from many sources such as wikipedia.org1, wikipedia.org2, intarch.ac.uk and artelisaart.blogspot.com. The illustration shows the window at Chartres Cathedral on the Parabel of the Good Samaritan, picture original work by MOSSOT, source Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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