The 10 greatest stained-glass windows in the world

Augsburg Cathedral, late 11th Century

The practice of staining glass for decorative purposes dates to ancient Rome, but the oldest examples in situ are from this Romanesque church in Augsburg, Germany, in the heart of Bavaria. Portraits of Moses, Daniel and other biblical figures gaze down from the south clerestory – the prophets stand rock-solid in their hats and robes, ringed by marbled borders that have grown more elegant with age. (Joergens.mi/Dom zu Augsburg/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0)

 BBC | 30 June 2014

Christ of Wissembourg, late 11th Century

Stained-glass windows served as a ‘poor man’s Bible’ in the Middle Ages, allowing believers who could not read Latin to learn the story of the Gospels. This portrait of Christ, now in a museum in Strasbourg, France, is believed to have come from a Benedictine abbey in the north of Alsace, where its somber expression and harsh frontal gaze would have had a terrific force. (Cancre/Head of Christ from Wissembourg/Wikipedia)

Chartres Cathedral, early 13th Century

Demand for stained glass reached its height in the late Middle Ages. The cathedral at Chartres, France, features sturdy flying buttresses that allowed for huge windows, including the glorious rose window detailing the birth of Christ. The density of the compositions bathes the interior of the cathedral in a deep, colorful glow. (Eusebius/Rosace Nord/Wikipedia)

Sainte-Chapelle, mid-13th Century

To modern viewers stained-glass windows may seem purely decorative, but in the Middle Ages they illustrated not only biblical narratives but also local history and political authority. The 15 tall windows of Sainte-Chapelle, on Paris’s central Ile de la Cité, depict tales from the Old and New Testaments – and also holy relics being brought to Paris by King Louis IX – now known as Saint Louis. (Michael D Hill Jr/Sainte Chapel Stained glass Interior/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0)

York Minster, 15th Century

One of the greatest of all European cathedrals, this Gothic masterpiece of northern England incorporates a giant east-facing window that is the largest expanse of stained glass anywhere before the modern era. Designed by John Thornton (the first named artist in British history), it features at its heart an intense depiction of the coming apocalypse. It’s currently undergoing repairs. (Asterion/York Minster West Window/Wikipedia/CC BY 2.5)

Vence Chapel, 1949-51

Amid the stark white expanses of the small Dominican chapel, Henri Matisse’s three sets of stained-glass windows are ablaze with the colours of the south of France: sunny yellow, deep green and a bright Mediterranean blue. While the palette has some liturgical significance (blue is the colour of Mary, yellow stands for the light of God), Matisse opts for abstract compositions; he lets the solid panes of coloured glass do the ecclesiastical heavy lifting. (Hemis/Alamy)

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