Notre Dame de Paris (French for "Our Lady of Paris", meaning the church in Paris dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus), often known simply as Notre Dame in English, is a gothic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in Paris, France, with its main entrance to the west. While a major tourist destination, it is still used as a Roman Catholic cathedral (archbishop of Paris). Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered the finest example of French gothic architecture.

Innovations

Notre Dame de Paris was one of the first gothic cathedrals, and was built throughout the Gothic period. Its sculptures and stained glass show the heavy influence of naturalism, giving them a more secular look that was lacking from earlier Romanesque designs.

Notre Dame de Paris was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress. The building was not originally designed to include the flying buttresses around the choir and nave. However, after the construction began and the thinner walls (popularized in the Gothic) grew ever higher, stress fractures began to occur as the walls pushed outward. The buttresses were added to prevent further deterioration. For many years, the buttresses were reviled as it was said they looked "like scaffolding" someone had forgotten to remove and gave the cathedral an "unfinished" look.

Features

The Western Façade

The Western Façade of the cathedral is the single most well-known feature. It is divided into three distinct levels, a holdover from Romanesque architecture. The image to the right indicates some of the west front's most significant features.

• The South Tower houses the cathedral's famous bell, "Emmanuel". The bell is Notre-Dame's oldest, having been recast in 1631.
• The Galerie des Chimères, or Grand Gallery, connects the two towers and is where the cathedral's legendary gargoyles (chimères) can be found.
• The West Rose Window is 10 meters in diameter. Many of the elements of the stained glass window date back to the 13th century construction of the cathedral. In front of the window stands a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the infant Jesus.
• The King's Gallery is a line of statues of the 24 Kings of Judah and Israel, which was redesigned by Viollet-le-Duc to replace the statues destroyed during the French Revolution. The revolutionaries believed the statues to represent the French kings, and decapitated them. (The heads were rescued by a school
  
  
  
  teacher who buried them in his backyard. They were rediscovered and are today on display at the Musée de Cluny.)
• The three Portals depict scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary (Portal to the Virgin), Christ enthroned judging the living and dead including the Ten Virgins (Portal of the Last Judgment), and scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary's mother (Portal to Saint Anne).

The north and south rose windows

The two transept windows of Notre Dame were built between 1250 and 1260, and were designed in the style of the High Gothic period. This is evident by how they sit flush with the wall rather than being recessed, unlike the rose window on the Western Façade which was built during the Early Gothic period. The rose window on the South wall depicts the "Triumph of Christ" along with scenes from the New Testament.

These rose windows are notable for being one of the few stained glass windows in the cathedral, and indeed in all of Europe, that still have their original glasswork.

Art inside the cathedral

The cathedral displays a sculpture of the Virgin Mary which is known as the Virgin of Paris. Commissioned during a time of great wealth by local merchants who saw the cathedral as a source of civic pride and a symbol of new economic freedom, the sculpture is noted for its decadent display and lavishly expensive decoration. While not heretical in subject, some observers have felt that the sculpture is more a symbol of arrogant wealth than piety.

Statistics

• The bell "Emmanuel" in the South Tower weighs 13 metric tons (over 28,000 pounds). The clapper alone weighs 500 kilograms (about 1,100 pounds).
• It is said that when "Emmanuel" was recast in 1631, women threw their jewelry into the molten metal, giving the bell its unique, pure tone (F sharp).
• The main vault inside the cathedral is 34 metres (112 feet) high.
• The towers of the Western Façade are 69 metres (228 feet) tall.
• 422 steps (that become increasingly narrower) lead to the very top of the Bell Tower.

Site history

The Notre Dame de Paris stands on the site of Paris' first Christian church, Saint-Étienne Basilica, which was itself built on the site of a Gallo-Roman temple to Jupiter. Notre Dame's first version was a "magnificent church" built by Childebert I, the king of the Franks in 528, and was already the cathedral of the city of Paris in the 10th century.

Notre Dame de Paris is 130 m (427 ft) long.

Construction

In 1160, having become the "parish church of the kings of Europe", Bishop Maurice de Sully deemed the current Parisian cathedral unworthy of its lofty role, and had it demolished shortly after he assumed the title of Bishop of Paris. According to legend, de Sully had a vision of a glorious new cathedral for Paris, and sketched it in the dirt outside of the original church. To begin the construction, the bishop had several houses demolished and

Construction began in 1163, during the reign of Louis VII, and opinion differs as to whether Bishop Maurice de Sully or Pope Alexander III laid the foundation stone of the cathedral. However, both were at the ceremony in question. Bishop de Sully went on to devote most of his life and wealth to the cathedral's construction.

Construction of the west front, with its distinctive two towers, only began circa 1200, before the nave had been completed. Over the construction period, numerous architects worked on the site, as is evidenced by the differing styles at different heights of the west front and towers. Between 1210 and 1220, the fourth architect oversaw the construction of the level with the rose window and the great halls beneath the towers. The towers were completed around 1245, and the cathedral was completed around 1345.

Timeline of construction

• 1160. Bishop Maurice de Sully (named Bishop of Paris), orders the original cathedral to be demolished.
• 1163. Cornerstone laid for Notre Dame de Paris - construction begins
• 1182. Apse and choir completed.
• 1196. Nave completed. Bishop de Sully dies.
• 1200. Work begins on Western Façade.
• 1225. Western Façade completed.
• 1250. Western Towers and North Rose Window completed
• 1250–1345. Remaining elements completed

Alterations, vandalism, and restorations

During the reign of Louis XIV and Louis XV, at the end of the 17th century, the cathedral underwent major alterations as part of an ongoing attempt to modernise cathedrals throughout Europe. Tombs and stained glass windows were destroyed. The North and South Rose Windows were spared this fate, however.

In 1548, rioting Huguenots damaged features of the cathedral following the Council of Trent.

In 1793 during the French Revolution, the cathedral was turned into a "Temple to Reason" and many of its treasures were destroyed or stolen. Several sculptures were smashed and destroyed, and for a time Lady Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary on several altars. The cathedral's great bells managed to avoid being melted down, but the cathedral was used as a warehouse for the storage of food.

A restoration program was initiated in 1845, overseen by architects Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The restoration lasted 23 years and included the construction of a flèche (a type of spire) as well as the addition of the chimeras on the Galerie des Chimères.

In 1871, a civil uprising leading to the establishment of the short-lived Paris Commune nearly set fire to the cathedral, and some records suggest that a mound of chairs within the cathedral was set alight.

In 1991, a major program of maintenance and restoration was initiated, which was intended to last 10 years but is still in progress as of 2005, the cleaning and restoration of old sculptures being an exceedingly delicate matter.

Significant events at Notre Dame

• Heraclius of Caesarea called for the Third Crusade from the still-incomplete cathedral in 1185.

• Henry VI of England was crowned King of France in 1431.

• Isabelle Romée, the mother of Joan of Arc, petitioned a papal delegation on 7 November, 1455 to overturn her daughter's conviction for heresy.

• Mary I of Scotland was married to the Dauphin Francois (later Francois II of France), son of Henry II of France, on April 24, 1558.

• Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France) married Marguerite de Valois on August 18, 1572.

• Napoleon Bonaparte, who had declared the Empire on May 28, 1804, was crowned Emperor here on December 2, 1804.

• Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909.

• The Te Deum Mass took place in the cathedral to celebrate the liberation of Paris in August 26, 1944.

• The Requiem Mass of General Charles de Gaulle took place in the cathedral on November 12, 1970.

Generally, French Catholic religious events of national significance take place in Notre-Dame.

Miscellaneous trivia

• In 1905, the law of separation of Church and State was passed; as all cathedrals built by the Kingdom of France, Notre-Dame remains state property, but its use is granted to the Roman Catholic Church.

• France's "kilometre zero", the reference point for distances along the highways starting in Paris, is situated in the square in front of the cathedral.

Notre Dame de Paris in the media

• During the early 19th century, the cathedral was in a state of disrepair, and city planners began to contemplate tearing it down. French novelist Victor Hugo, an admirer of the cathedral, wrote his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame (titled in French Notre Dame de Paris) in part to raise awareness of the cathedral's heritage, which sparked renewed interest in the cathedral's fate. A campaign to collect funds to save the cathedral followed, culminating in the 1845 restoration.

• The cathedral was featured in the film Before Sunset.

• In the movie Amélie, Amélie's mother is killed while visiting the cathedral.

• Feudal Era Japanese samurai Samanosuke Akechi visited Notre Dame after being flung into the future in the video game Onimusha 3: Demon Siege. However, the cathedral was infested with demons and apparently underground is a complex filled with an arcane presence and design.

See also

• Catholicism
• Cathedral
• Gothic architecture
• Flying buttress
• The Virgin Mary

References

• Jacobs, Jay, ed. The Horizon Book of Great Cathedrals. New York, New York: American Heritage Publishing, 1968.
• Janson, H.W. History of Art. 3rd Edition. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams Incorporated, 1986.
• Myers, Bernard S. Art and Civilization. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957.
• Michelin Travel Publications. The Green Guide Paris. Hertfordshire, UK: Michelin Travel Publications, 2003.

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