With or without a glass of Champagne, a visit to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims is non-negotiable.
This is one of Europe’s great Gothic cathedrals, and there’s a solid argument to be made that it’s Frances most beautiful — even edging out Notre-Dame de Paris.
Construction began in 1211 and moved at an unusually brisk pace, wrapping up in roughly 60 years. The builders were fully aware they were competing with Notre-Dame de Paris and Notre-Dame de Chartres, and they were determined to win.
Legend has it that a little creative borrowing of ideas (call it medieval industrial espionage) helped Reims come out slightly longer. Point taken.
The result is a cathedral that feels confident rather than overwrought.
Its scale and light made such an impression that Louis IX decreed Reims the official coronation site for French kings, making it the equivalent of Westminster Abbey in London. Joan of Arc even made an appearance, crowning Charles VII in 1429.
Reims Cathedral was damaged during WWI.
While the structure survived, its roof was destroyed. It was completely rebuilt in the 1920s. Instead of timber, heat resistant concrete was used to rebuild the roof.
Reims is an example of a loyal and successful renovation, hewing closely to the original but with modern materials. The cathedral was designated a UNESCO site in 1991.
Quick Tips
- the cathedral is free to visit, but you have to pay for a ticket to climb the tower
- go early or late to avoid crowds
- save time to admire the facade and walk around it
- plan to spen 1-1.5 hours
>>> Click here to book a guided cathedral tour
Guide To Reims Cathedral: What To See
Exterior
I would start your visit by walking around the beautiful exterior. Here, architecture and sculpture are closely combined. There are over 2,000 sculptures on the facade.
The ornate western portal is where you enter and is especially distinctive for its beauty, unity, and harmony.
There are three main doors, all with a theme carved in limestone: the passion, the coronation of Mary, and the last judgment (from left to right). Above the portals are sculptural groups reflecting these themes.
At the base, the piers display saints, apostles, prophets, and biblical figures. Of special note are the extremely graceful statues of the Smiling Angel, the Servant Girl, the Angel of the Annunciation, and Saint Denis with his head held in his hands.
The Smiling Angel is everyone’s favorite. Unlike most Gothic sculpture, it’s not solemn and stylized. Instead, it’s playful and feels genuinely human.
When the cathedral was bombed in 1914, the angel was blown apart and decapitated. Its fragments were recovered and restored and now it’s practically a national icon.
Across the top is the Gallery of Kings, which encircles the base of the towers. There are 63 giant statues of unnamed kings of France, with Clovis in the center. They were created in the 14th and 15th centuries.
On the sides, you can see the massive flying buttresses that support the building. There are a vast number of them, all slimmed down. Above them is a gallery of gargoyles used to drain water.
The north transept facade has its own richly carved portal and a rose window. The sculpture is denser and more narrative than the west front, which gives it a slightly different feel.
The south transept echoes it with another large rose window, creating a nice sense of balance across the building. It gets less attention, but it’s just as important to the overall design.
The portal here is also heavily carved, though not quite as cohesive as the west facade. The scenes feel more compressed, with a mix of biblical episodes and saints that aren’t as easy to read at a glance.
This side is also one of the best places to step back and take in the buttress system in full view.
Interior
Inside is the real treat. You step into a towering 500 foot nave. It’s a slender and elegant hull of an upturned ship.
You’re greeted by a wall of 52 intricately carved, though somewhat eroded, statues in seven rows of recesses.
They enclose a small rose window on the reverse side of the front facade. The great rose window sits above that.
The church has a Latin cross plan with somewhat projecting arms at one end. There are two aisles in the nave and side chapels.
Choir
The choir is the core liturgical space and unusually large in size. It’s deep and elongated, surrounded by a wide ambulatory with radiating chapels.
The proportions feel more processional than intimate, as befitting a coronation church.
It has a double level elevation with soaring arcades and clerestory windows. Some glass is medieval and some is modern.
The high altar in the choir is the only thing in the church that’s not ornate or medieval. Instead, it’s a restrained modern affair that feels almost stark in contrast.
Joan of Arc Chapel
The Joan of Arc Chapel is a small chapel in the ring behind the choir. The tone is more intimate than dramatic.
Why is Joan here? Well, she didn’t just pass through Reims. She singlehandedly arranged the coronation of Charles VII, a task which she saw in her visions.
In the chapel, a statue of Joan holding a sword sits in a red porphyry baldachin. She’s surrounded by Imi Knoebel stained glass (more on that below).
Rosary Chapel
This is side chapel containing a medieval altarpiece. Given that the rest of the cathedral interior is relatively stark and modern, it stands out. Plus, it’s a reminder of what the cathedral’s furnishing once looked like before the WWI damage.
The Renaissance altarpiece dates to 1541 and is carved in marble and stone by Pierre Jacques. It’s arranged in three stacked tiers, each divided into small compartments that read almost like scenes on a stage.
At the bottom is a Pieta: the Virgin holds Christ’s body, with Saint John and Mary Magdalene close by. At her feet, the donor kneels, quietly inserted into the scene, while his patron saints — Saint Paul and Saint Anthony, complete with his pig — stand in the side niches.
Above, the focus shifts to the Resurrection, with Christ rising from the tomb. Guards flank the scene, angels hover in prayer, and the four Evangelists fill out the composition. At the very top, God the Father sits above it all, wearing a tiara.
Stained Glass
Rose Window
The Great Rose Window is the centerpiece of the glass program, dedicated to the Virgin. Twelve radiating petals spread out from the center in a precise, almost mathematical design.
At the heart sits Mary, calm and frontal, anchoring the entire composition.
Around her is a first ring of the twelve apostles, and beyond that a second circle of angel-musicians, each holding instruments as if poised to begin. It’s less a static image than a kind of celestial concert.
The structure matters as much as the imagery. The concentric rings pull your eye outward and upward at the same time, reinforcing the idea of ascent.
And like much Gothic glass, it works best at a distance. Up close, it’s a maze of lead lines. But step back and the whole thing resolves into a clear, luminous order.
It’s easy to miss how controlled it is. For all the color and detail, the design is tightly organized, almost architectural in its precision.
13th Century Stained Glass
Though the WWI shelling destroyed many of the stained glass windows, an interesting collection remains. The oldest ones decorate the high windows of the apse/ambulatory (above the Chagall stained glass).
The rose window in the north transept is still intact and lovely with intricate tracery. Its theme is the creation.
There’s also original stained glass in the triforium, a narrow gallery that runs along the wall above the main arcade and below the clerestory windows. They depict a coronation from the 14th century.
Chagall Stained Glass
The interior highlight sits at the far end of the church, in the axial chapel behind the high altar. That’s where you’ll find the stained glass windows by Marc Chagall, installed in 1974.
They’re unmistakably his. Deep blues dominate, with flashes of red and green. And figures that seem to drift rather than stand. It feels more like painting than glass.
But the subject matter is traditional. The central window shows the Virgin and Child, with that signature green halo Chagall used to suggest renewal.
Around them are scenes tied to Reims itself: the anointing of kings, the story of Clovis, and Old Testament episodes like Abraham. It’s a mix of biblical narrative and French royal history, filtered through a very modern hand.
What’s striking is how well it works. The style is loose, almost dreamlike, but the windows don’t feel out of place. They hold their own against the Gothic setting without trying to imitate it.
It’s one of the few moments in a major cathedral where a modern artist doesn’t just blend in. He actually shifts the atmosphere of the space.
Imi Knoebel Stained Glass
In 2011-15, German artist Imi Knoebel designed a series of abstract windows in the Joan of Arc Chapel and the St. Joseph’s Chapel. They were installed to celebrate the cathedral’s 800th anniversary.
They’re completely different than the dreamy, figurative Chagall windows. They have a sharp geometry and blocks of color, making them almost Bauhaus in style. The windows don’t tell stories either.
They play with light and color instead. When the light hits them, bands of red, blue, and yellow fill the chapel. The artist dubbed it a “return to [the cathedral’s] original color code.”
Not everyone likes them. I did. I like to see a cathedral that’s not stuck in the Middle Ages and is still evolving.
Practical Information & Tips for Reims Cathedral
Hours: Open daily from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm.
Tickets:
The cathedral is free to visit. You can also visit (and have some champagne) on a guided day tour from Paris.
If you want to climb a tower, pick up a ticket in Tau Palace for 7.50 euros. It’s 250 steps to the top.
The views are just adequate. But you do get an up close and personal look at the some of the facade sculptures, including the Gallery of Kings.
Pro Tips:
I’d plan to budget 1 to 1.5 hours to see the cathedral, a bit more if you’re climbing a tower.
Tapestries and the Treasury from the cathedral are housed in the Tau Palace (attached to the south side).
I hope you’ve enjoyed my guide to Reims Cathedral. You may find these other France travel guides useful:
- 3 days in Paris itinerary
- 4 days in Paris itinerary
- Hidden gems in France
- Medieval villages in France
- One week itineraries for France
- 10 days in southern France itinerary
- One week in Provence itinerary
- One week in Burgundy itinerary
- One week in Normandy itinerary
- One week in Dordogne itinerary
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