[1] The goal of High Gothic architects was to bring the maximum possible light from the stained glass windows, and to awe the church goers with lavish decoration.

Reims Cathedral was the traditional site of the coronation of the Capetian dynasty and for that reason was given special grandeur and importance.

[2] A fire in 1210 destroyed much of the old cathedral, giving an opportunity to build a more ambitious structure, the work began in 1211, but was interrupted by a local rebellion in 1233, and not resumed until 1236.

[8] Unlike the cathedrals of Early Gothic, Reims was built with just three levels instead of four, giving greater space for windows at the top.

Even the flying buttresses were given elaborate decoration; they were crowned by small tabernacles containing statues of saints, which were topped with pinnacles.

The nave has three parts and six crossings, while the choir has double collaterals, and ends in a semicircular disambulatory with seven radiating chapels.

[9] On the exterior, the most remarkable High Gothic feature is the quality of the sculpture of the three porches, decorated altogether with fifty-two statues in their original condition.

The choir was modified and rebuilt, the polygonal apse and Flamboyant transepts were finished, and in 1569 a new central tower was added, 153 meters (502 feet) high, which made Beauvais for a time the tallest structure in the world.

[11] The construction of the Gothic cathedral of Cologne was started in 1248 by the same Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden, who promoted the election of William of Holland for ruler of the Holy Roman Empire to finish the rule of Hohenstaufen dynasty, this way.

[12] Thanks largely to the efficiency of the flying buttress and six-part rib vaults, all of the major High Gothic cathedrals except Bourges used the three-level elevation, eliminating the tribunes and keeping the ground floor grand gallery, the triforium, and the clerestory, or high windows.

[15] The ribs of this vault distributed the weight more equally to the four supporting piers below, and established a closer connection between the nave and the lower portions of the church walls, and between the arcades below and the windows above.

[15] This allowed for greater height and thinner walls, and contributed to the strong impression of verticality given by the newer Cathedrals.

[15] The 11th century Durham Cathedral (1093–1135), with the earlier six-part rib vaults, is 73 feet (22 meters) high.

The 12th-century nave of Notre-Dame de Paris, also with six-part rib vaults, is 115 feet, or 35 meters high.

[16] The later Amiens Cathedral (built 1220–1266), with the new four-part rib vaults, has a nave that is 138.8 feet (42.3 meters) high.

[16] In 1192 Notre Dame, which had six-part vaults, had introduced a new kind of support; a central pillar surrounded by four engaged shafts.

[13] The flying buttress was an essential feature of High Gothic architecture; the great height and large upper windows would have been impossible without them.

Flying buttresses had been used to support the upper windows of the apse in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, completed in 1063[17] and then at Notre-Dame de Paris.

The first flying buttresses of Chartres were built atop the wall abutments of the nave and choir of the earlier cathedral.

This was made with plate tracery, where the design was formed by a group of variously shaped openings that appeared to be cut out of the wall.

Large bands of translucent gray glass were put around the fully colored figures of Christ, The Virgin Mary, and other prominent subjects.

[22] The west window of Chartres Cathedral used an early form called plate tracery, a geometric pattern of openings in the stonework filled with glass.

Prior to 1230, the builders of Reims Cathedral used a more sophisticated form, called bar tracery, in the apse chapel.

After the middle of the 13th century, the windows began to be decorated with even larger and complex designs, resembling light shining outwards, which gave the name to the Rayonnant style.

[23] The entirely different and more naturalistic High Gothic style of sculpture appeared on the west front Reims Cathedral in the 1240s.

This famous work was knocked off the Cathedral by a bombardment in World War I, but was carefully reassembled and is now back in its original place.

The vegetal decoration of the capitals of the columns of the nave were another distinctive feature of High Gothic sculpture.