What is a “rose window”?

The story behind the answer

These monumental circular features of Gothic churches are filled with colored glass set in intricate stone tracery, creating radial, petal-like patterns that flood the nave with symbolic light. Their form and materials distinguish them from simple skylights or carved ornaments.

Popular from the 12th to 16th centuries, they crowned the west fronts and transepts of cathedrals like Chartres and Notre-Dame. Beyond beauty, they served as “sermons in glass,” depicting biblical scenes and saints, and their floral geometry evoked the “rosa mystica”—a title for the Virgin Mary—linking architecture, devotion, and dazzling light.