Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre-Dame de Paris
South façade and the nave of Notre-Dame in 2017, two years before the fire
Basic information
Location	Parvis Notre-Dame – Place Jean-Paul-II, Paris
Religious affiliation	Catholic Church
Year consecrated	May 19, 1182 (high altar)
Ecclesiastical status	Cathedral, minor basilica
Website	www.notredamedeparis.fr/en/
Architectural description
Architectural type	Gothic
Architectural style	French Gothic
Year completed	1345
Specifications
Length	128 meters (420 ft)
Width	48 meters (160 ft)
Spire/s	1 (the third, completed December 16, 2023)
Spire height	96 meters (310 ft)
Materials	Limestone and marble

Notre-Dame de Paris (French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris; meaning "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary ("Our Lady"), is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Several attributes set it apart from the earlier Romanesque style, including its pioneering use of the rib vault and flying buttress, its enormous and colorful rose windows, and the naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration. Notre-Dame is also exceptional for its three pipe organs (one historic) and its immense church bells.

Construction of the cathedral began in 1163 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and was largely completed by 1260, though it was modified in succeeding centuries. In the 1790s, during the French Revolution, Notre-Dame suffered extensive desecration; much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. The 1831 publication of Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris (English title: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) inspired interest which led to restoration between 1844 and 1864.

A fire in April 2019 caused serious damage, closing the cathedral for repairs; it reopened in December 2024. Notre-Dame is a widely recognized symbol of both the city of Paris and the French nation. It is the most visited monument in Paris.

History

The construction of Notre-Dame began in 1163 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and was largely completed by 1260, though it was modified in succeeding centuries. In the 1790s, during the French Revolution, the cathedral suffered extensive desecration; much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. It still contains Gothic, Baroque, and nineteenth-century sculptures, seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century altarpieces, and some of the most important relics in Christendom, including the crown of thorns, and a sliver and nail from the True Cross.

Key dates

The Cathedral in 1699

The church restored by Viollet-le-Duc (1860s)

Cathedral fire (April 15, 2019)

• Fourth century – Cathedral of Saint Étienne, dedicated to Saint Stephen, built just west of present cathedral.
• 1163 – Bishop Maurice de Sully begins construction of new cathedral.
• 1182 or 1185 – Choir completed, clerestory with two levels: upper level of upright windows with pointed arches, still without tracery, lower level of small rose windows.
• 1200c. 1200 – Construction of nave, with flying buttresses, completed.
• 1210c. 1210–1220 – Construction of towers begins.
• 1210c. 1210–1220 – Two new traverses join towers with nave. West rose window complete in 1220.
• After 1220 – New flying buttresses added to choir walls, remodeling of the clerestories: pointed arched windows are enlarged downward, replacing the triforia, and get tracery.
• 1235–1245 – Chapels constructed between buttresses of nave and choir.
• 1250–1260 – North transept lengthened by Jean de Chelles to provide more light. North rose window constructed.
• 1270 – South transept and rose window completed by Pierre de Montreuil.
• 1699 – Beginning of major redecoration of interior in Louis XIV style by Hardouin Mansart and Robert de Cotte.
• 1725–1727 – South rose window, poorly built, is reconstructed. Later entirely rebuilt in 1854.
• 1790 – In the French Revolution the Revolutionary Paris Commune removes all bronze, lead, and precious metals from the cathedral to be melted down.
• 1793 – The cathedral is converted into a Temple of Reason and then Temple of the Supreme Being.
• 1801–1802 – With the Concordat of 1801, Napoleon restores the use of the cathedral (though not ownership) to the Catholic Church.
• 1804 – On 2 December, Napoleon crowns himself Emperor at Notre-Dame.
• 1844–1864 – Major restoration by Jean-Baptiste Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc with additions in the spirit of the original Gothic style.
• 1871 – In final days of the Paris Commune, the Communards prepared to burn the cathedral, but abandoned their plan since it would necessarily also burn the crowded neighboring hospital for the elderly.
• 1944 – On August 26, General Charles de Gaulle celebrates the Liberation of Paris with a special Mass at Notre-Dame.
• 1963 – Culture Minister André Malraux orders the cleaning of the cathedral façade of centuries of grime and soot.
• 2019 – On April 15, a fire destroys a large part of the roof and the flèche.
• 2021 – Reconstruction begins
• 2024 – Reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris, December, 7-8. On December 13, 2024 the revered Crown of Thorns relic was returned to the cathedral.

Origin

Outline of the primitive Cathedral of Notre-Dame in 1150, on the spot of the nave, the transept and the choir of the current building. The Cathedral of Saint Étienne was located to the west, at the level of today's parvis.

It is believed that before the arrival of Christianity in France, a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter stood on the site of Notre-Dame. In the fourth or fifth century, a large early Christian church, the Cathedral of Saint Étienne, was built on the site, close to the royal palace.

The last church before the cathedral of Notre-Dame was a Romanesque remodeling of Saint-Étienne that, although enlarged and remodeled, was found to be unfit for the growing population of Paris. The growth of the population of Paris and other French cities was characteristic of Western Europe during the Renaissance of the twelfth century.

In 1160, the bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, decided to build a new and much larger church. He summarily demolished the earlier cathedral and recycled its materials. Sully decided that the new church should be built in the Gothic style, which had been inaugurated at the royal abbey of Saint Denis in the late 1130s.

Construction

The chronicler Jean de Saint-Victor recorded in the Memorial Historiarum that the construction of Notre-Dame began between March 24 and April 25, 1163 with the laying of the cornerstone in the presence of King Louis VII and Pope Alexander III. Four phases of construction took place under bishops Maurice de Sully and Eudes de Sully (not related to Maurice), according to masters whose names have been lost. Analysis of vault stones that fell in the 2019 fire shows that they were quarried in Vexin, a county northwest of Paris, and presumably brought up the Seine by boat.

Cross-section of the double supporting arches and buttresses of the nave, drawn by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc as they would have appeared from 1220 to 1230

The first phase began with the construction of the choir and its two ambulatories. According to Robert of Torigni, the choir was completed in 1177 and the high altar consecrated on 19 May 1182 by Cardinal Henri de Château-Marçay, the Papal legate in Paris, and Maurice de Sully. The second phase, from 1182 to 1190, concerned the construction of the four sections of the nave behind the choir and its aisles to the height of the clerestories. It began after the completion of the choir but ended before the final allotted section of the nave was finished. Beginning in 1190, the bases of the façade were put in place, and the first traverses were completed. Heraclius of Caesarea called for the Third Crusade in 1185 from the still-incomplete cathedral.

Louis IX deposited the relics of the passion of Christ, which included the crown of thorns, a nail from the True Cross, and a sliver of the True Cross, which he had purchased at great expense from the Latin Emperor Baldwin II, in the cathedral during the construction of the Sainte-Chapelle. An under-shirt, believed to have belonged to Louis, was added to the collection of relics at some time after his death.

Transepts were added at the choir, where the altar was located, in order to bring more light into the center of the church. The use of simpler four-part rather than six-part rib vaults meant that the roofs were stronger and could be higher. After Bishop Maurice de Sully's death in 1196, his successor, Eudes de Sully oversaw the completion of the transepts, and continued work on the nave, which was nearing completion at the time of his death in 1208. By this time, the western façade was already largely built; it was completed around the mid-1240s. Between 1225 and 1250 the upper gallery of the nave was constructed, along with the two towers on the west façade.

Arrows show forces in vault and current flying buttresses

Another significant change came in the mid-thirteenth century, when the transepts were remodeled in the latest Rayonnant style; in the late 1240s Jean de Chelles added a gabled portal to the north transept topped by a spectacular rose window. Shortly afterward (from 1258) Pierre de Montreuil executed a similar scheme on the southern transept. Both these transept portals were richly embellished with sculpture; the south portal depicts scenes from the lives of Saint Stephen and of various local saints, and the north portal featured the infancy of Christ and the story of Theophilus in the tympanum, with a highly influential statue of the Virgin and Child in the trumeau. Master builders Pierre de Chelles, Jean Ravy, Jean le Bouteiller, and Raymond du Temple succeeded de Chelles and de Montreuil and then each other in the construction of the cathedral. Ravy completed de Chelles's rood screen and chevet chapels, then began the 15-meter (49 ft) flying buttresses of the choir. Jean le Bouteiller, Ravy's nephew, succeeded him in 1344 and was himself replaced on his death in 1363 by his deputy, Raymond du Temple.

An important innovation in the thirteenth century was the introduction of the flying buttress. Before the buttresses, all of the weight of the roof pressed outward and down to the walls, and the abutments supporting them. With the flying buttress, the weight was carried by the ribs of the vault entirely outside the structure to a series of counter-supports, which were topped with stone pinnacles which gave them greater weight. The buttresses meant that the walls could be higher and thinner, and could have larger windows. The date of the first buttresses is not known with precision beyond an installation date in the thirteenth century. The first buttresses were replaced by larger and stronger ones in the fourteenth century; these had a reach of 15 meters (50 ft) between the walls and counter-supports.

John of Jandun recognized the cathedral as one of Paris's three most important buildings [prominent structures] in his 1323 Treatise on the Praises of Paris:

That most terrible church of the most glorious Virgin Mary, mother of God, deservedly shines out, like the sun among stars. And although some speakers, by their own free judgment, because [they are] able to see only a few things easily, may say that some other is more beautiful, I believe however, respectfully, that, if they attend more diligently to the whole and the parts, they will quickly retract this opinion. Where indeed, I ask, would they find two towers of such magnificence and perfection, so high, so large, so strong, clothed round about with such a multiple variety of ornaments? Where, I ask, would they find such a multipartite arrangement of so many lateral vaults, above and below? Where, I ask, would they find such light-filled amenities as the many surrounding chapels? Furthermore, let them tell me in what church I may see such a large cross, of which one arm separates the choir from the nave. Finally, I would willingly learn where [there are] two such circles, situated opposite each other in a straight line, which on account of their appearance are given the name of the fourth vowel [O]; among which smaller orbs and circlets, with wondrous artifice, so that some arranged circularly, others angularly, surround windows ruddy with precious colors and beautiful with the most subtle figures of the pictures. In fact I believe that this church offers the carefully discerning such cause for admiration that its inspection can scarcely sate the soul.

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  Plan of the cathedral made by Viollet-le-Duc in the nineteenth century. Portals and nave to the left, a choir in the center, and apse and ambulatory to the right. The annex to the south is the sacristy.

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  Early six-part rib vaults of the nave. The ribs transferred the thrust of the weight of the roof downward and outwards to the pillars and the supporting buttresses.

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  The massive buttresses which counter the outward thrust from the rib vaults of the nave. The weight of the building-shaped pinnacles helps keep the line of thrust safely within the buttresses.

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  Later flying buttresses of the apse of Notre-Dame (fourteenth century) reached 15 meters (49 ft) from the wall to the counter-supports.

Fifteenth–eighteenth centuries

During the Renaissance, the Gothic style fell out of style, and the internal pillars and walls of Notre-Dame were covered with tapestries.

Since 1449, the Parisian goldsmith guild had made regular donations to the cathedral chapter. In 1630, the guild began donating a large altarpiece every year on May 1. These works came to be known as the grands mays. The subject matter was restricted to episodes from the Acts of the Apostles. The prestigious commission was awarded to the most prominent painters and, after 1648, members of the Académie Royale.

Seventy-six paintings had been donated by 1708, when the custom was discontinued for financial reasons. Those works were confiscated in 1793 and the majority were subsequently dispersed among regional museums in France. Those that remained in the cathedral were removed or relocated within the building by the nineteenth-century restorers. Thirteen of the grands mays hang in Notre-Dame; these paintings suffered water damage during the fire of 2019 and were removed for conservation.

The canon Antoine de La Porte commissioned for Louis XIV six paintings depicting the life of the Virgin Mary for the choir. At this same time, Charles de La Fosse painted his Adoration of the Magi, now in the Louvre. Louis Antoine de Noailles, archbishop of Paris, extensively modified the roof of Notre-Dame in 1726, renovating its framing and removing the gargoyles with lead gutters. Noailles also strengthened the buttresses, galleries, terraces, and vaults. In 1756, the cathedral's canons decided that its interior was too dark. The medieval stained glass windows, except the rosettes, were removed and replaced with plain, white glass panes. Lastly, Jacques-Germain Soufflot was tasked with the modification of the portals at the front of the cathedral to allow processions to enter more easily.

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  Henry VI of England's coronation in Notre-Dame as King of France, aged ten, during the Hundred Years' War. His accession to the throne was in accordance with the Treaty of Troyes of 1420.

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  La Descente du Saint-Esprit; illustration depicting Notre-Dame from the Hours of Étienne Chevalier by Jean Fouquet, 1450c. 1450

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  A Te Deum in the choir of Notre-Dame in 1669, during the reign of Louis XIV. The choir was redesigned to make room for more lavish ceremonies.

French Revolution and Napoleon

After the French Revolution in 1789, Notre-Dame and the rest of the church's property in France was seized and made public property. The cathedral was rededicated in 1793 to the Cult of Reason, and then to the Cult of the Supreme Being in 1794. During this time, many of the treasures of the cathedral were either destroyed or plundered. The twenty-eight statues of biblical kings located at the west façade, mistaken for statues of French kings, were beheaded. Many of the heads were found during a 1977 excavation nearby, and are on display at the Musée de Cluny. For a time the Goddess of Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary on several altars. The cathedral's great bells escaped being melted down. All of the other large statues on the façade, with the exception of the statue of the Virgin Mary on the portal of the cloister, were destroyed.

With the Concordat of 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte restored Notre-Dame to the Catholic Church; this was finalized on April 18 ,1802. Napoleon also named Paris's new bishop, Jean-Baptiste de Belloy, who restored the cathedral's interior. Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine made quasi-Gothic modifications to Notre-Dame for the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French within the cathedral. The building's exterior was whitewashed and the interior decorated in Neoclassical style, then in vogue.

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  The Cult of Reason is celebrated at Notre-Dame during the French Revolution (1793)

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  Arrival of Napoleon at the east end of Notre-Dame for his coronation as Emperor of the French on December 2, 1804

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  The coronation of Napoleon, on December 2, 1804 at Notre-Dame, as portrayed in the 1807 painting The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David

Nineteenth-century restoration

In the decades after the Napoleonic Wars, Notre-Dame fell into such a state of disrepair that Paris officials considered its demolition. Victor Hugo, who admired the cathedral, wrote the novel Notre-Dame de Paris (published in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) in 1831 to save it. The book was an enormous success, raising awareness of the cathedral's decaying state. In 1844 King Louis Philippe ordered that the church be restored.

The architect who had been in charge of Notre-Dame's maintenance, Étienne-Hippolyte Godde, was dismissed. Jean-Baptiste Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who had distinguished themselves with the restoration of the nearby Sainte-Chapelle, were appointed in 1844. The next year, Viollet-le-Duc submitted a budget of 3,888,500 francs, which was reduced to 2,650,000 francs, for the restoration of Notre-Dame and the construction of a new sacristy building. This budget was exhausted in 1850, and work stopped as Viollet-le-Duc made proposals for more money. In totality, the restoration cost over 12 million francs. Supervising a large team of sculptors, glass makers, and other craftsmen, and working from drawings or engravings, Viollet-le-Duc remade or added decorations if he felt they were in the spirit of the original style. One of the latter items was a taller and more ornate flèche, to replace the original thirteenth-century flèche, which had been removed in 1786. The decoration of the restoration included a bronze roof statue of Saint Thomas that resembles Viollet-le-Duc, as well as the sculpture of mythical creatures on the Galerie des Chimères.

The construction of the sacristy was especially financially costly. To secure a firm foundation, it was necessary for Viollet-le-Duc's laborers to dig 9 meters (30 ft). Master glassworkers meticulously copied styles of the thirteenth century, as written about by art historians Antoine Lusson and Adolphe Napoléon Didron.

During the Paris Commune of March through May 1871, the cathedral and other churches were closed, and some two hundred priests and the Archbishop of Paris were taken as hostages. In May, during the Semaine sanglante of "Bloody Week," as the army recaptured the city, the Communards targeted the cathedral, along with the Tuileries Palace and other landmarks, for destruction; the Communards piled the furniture together in order to burn the cathedral. The arson was halted when the Communard government realized that the fire would also destroy the neighboring Hôtel-Dieu hospital, filled with hundreds of patients.

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  The western façade of Notre-Dame in 1841, showing the building in an advanced state of disrepair before the major restoration by Viollet-le-Duc

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  Proposed doorway decoration by Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc; plate engraved by Léon Gaucherel

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  The southern façade of Notre-Dame at the beginning of the restoration work; photo from 1847 by Hippolyte Bayard

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  Model of the flèche and "forest" of wooden roof beams made for Viollet-le-Duc (1859) (Museum of Historic Monuments, Paris)

Twentieth century

Façade of Notre-Dame in the 1930s

During the liberation of Paris in August 1944, the cathedral suffered some minor damage from stray bullets. Some of the medieval glass was damaged, and was replaced by glass with modern abstract designs. On August 26, a special Mass was held in the cathedral to celebrate the liberation of Paris from the Germans; it was attended by General Charles de Gaulle and General Philippe Leclerc.

In 1963, on the initiative of culture minister André Malraux and to mark the 800th anniversary of the cathedral, the façade was cleaned of the centuries of soot and grime, restoring it to its original off-white color.

Requiem Mass for former heads of state were held in the cathedral: for Charles de Gaulle on November 12, 1970, and for François Mitterrand on January 11, 1996. After the Magnificat of May 30, 1980, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass on the parvis of the cathedral.

The stone masonry of the cathedral's exterior had deteriorated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries due to increased air pollution in Paris, which accelerated erosion of decorations and discolored the stone. By the late 1980s, several gargoyles and turrets had fallen or become too loose to remain safely in place. A decade-long renovation program began in 1991 and replaced much of the exterior, with care given to retain the authentic architectural elements of the cathedral, including rigorous inspection of new limestone blocks. A discreet system of electrical wires, not visible from below, was also installed on the roof to deter pigeons. The west face was cleaned and restored in time for millennium celebrations in December 1999.

Twenty-first century

Notre-Dame in May 2012. From top to bottom, nave walls are pierced by clerestory windows, arches to triforium, and arches to side aisles.

Notre-Dame began a year-long celebration of the 850th anniversary of the laying of the first building block for the cathedral on December 12, 2012. The set of four nineteenth-century bells at the top of the northern towers at Notre-Dame were melted down and recast into new bronze bells in 2013, to celebrate the building's 850th anniversary. They were designed to recreate the sound of the cathedral's original bells from the seventeenth century.

Despite the 1990s renovation, the cathedral had continued to show signs of deterioration that prompted the national government to propose a new renovation program in the late 2010s. The entire renovation was estimated to cost €100 million, which the archbishop of Paris planned to raise through funds from the national government and private donations. A €6 million renovation of the cathedral's flèche began in late 2018 and continued into the following year, requiring the temporary removal of copper statues on the roof and other decorative elements.

2019 fire

On April 15, 2019 the cathedral caught fire, destroying the flèche and the "forest" of oak roof beams supporting the lead roof. It was speculated that the fire was linked to ongoing renovation work.

The main structure remained intact; firefighters saved the façade, towers, walls, buttresses, and stained-glass windows. The stone vaulting that forms the ceiling of the cathedral had several holes but was otherwise intact. Immediately after the fire, Macron promised that Notre-Dame would be restored, and called for the work to be completed within five years. The Great Organ, which has over 8,000 pipes and was built by François Thierry in the eighteenth century was also saved, with minor water damage. Because of the renovation, the copper statues on the flèche had been removed before the fire.

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  The 2019 fire destroyed Notre-Dame's wooden roof and flèche but left the outer structure largely intact.

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  The flèche aflame during the 2019 fire, before its collapse

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  The area directly under the crossing and two other cells of vaulting collapsed

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  In red, the destroyed parts

Cathedral reopens December 7, 2024

The cathedral reopened on December 7, 2024 in a ceremony presided over by Laurent Ulrich, the Archbishop of Paris, and attended by 1,500 world leaders and dignitaries such as US President-elect Donald Trump, US first lady Jill Biden, Britain's Prince William, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Towers and the flèche

The two towers are 69 meters (230 ft) high. The towers were the last major element of the cathedral to be constructed. The south tower was built first, between 1220 and 1240, and the north tower between 1235 and 1250. The newer north tower is slightly larger, as can be seen when they are viewed from directly in front of the church. The contrefort or buttress of the north tower is also larger. The cathedral's main peal of bells is within these towers.

The south tower was accessible to visitors by a stairway, whose entrance was on the south side of the tower. The stairway has 387 steps, and has a stop at the Gothic hall at the level of the rose window, where visitors could look over the parvis and see a collection of paintings and sculpture from earlier periods of the cathedral's history.

The cathedral's flèche (or spirelet) was located over the transept. The original flèche was constructed in the thirteenth century, probably between 1220 and 1230. It was battered, weakened and bent by the wind over five centuries, and was removed in 1786. During the nineteenth-century restoration, Viollet-le-Duc recreated it, making a new version of oak covered with lead. The entire flèche weighed 750 tonnes.

The rooster weathervane on top of the flèche has both a religious and political symbolism. The rooster is the symbol of the French state, which since 1905 has owned Notre-Dame and the other 86 cathedrals in France. It is found over all French cathedrals, as well as over the entrance of the Elysée Palace, the residence of the French president, on other government buildings, and on French postage stamps.

Following Viollet-le-Duc's plans, the flèche was surrounded by copper statues of the twelve Apostles, a group of three at each point of the compass. In front of each group is a symbol representing one of the four evangelists: a winged ox for Saint Luke, a lion for Saint Mark, an eagle for Saint John, and an angel for Saint Matthew. Just days prior to the fire, the statues were removed for restoration. While in place, they had faced outwards towards Paris, except one: the statue of Saint Thomas, the patron saint of architects, faced the flèche, and had the features of Viollet-le-Duc.

The rooster weathervane at the top of the flèche contained three relics: a tiny piece from the Crown of Thorns in the cathedral treasury, and relics of Saint Denis and Saint Genevieve, patron saints of Paris. They were placed there in 1935 by Archbishop Jean Verdier, to protect the congregation from lightning or other harm. The rooster with relics intact was recovered in the rubble shortly after the fire.

The new flèche was put in place on December 16, 2023, and a new gilded rooster sculpture, designed by architect Philippe Villeneuve, was also installed, containing the same relics as old flèche, as well as the names of two thousand people who had participated in the reconstruction.

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  Towers on west façade (1220–1250)

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  The gallery of chimeras pictured in 1910 by Georges Redon

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  The nineteenth-century flèche

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  The rooster reliquary at the top of the flèche. It was found lightly damaged in the rubble after the 2019 fire.

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  The flèche from above, in 2013

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  Statue of Thomas the Apostle, with the features of restorer Viollet-le-Duc, at the base of the flèche

Iconography–the "poor people's book"

The Gothic cathedral was a liber pauperum, a "poor people's book," covered with sculptures vividly illustrating biblical stories, for the vast majority of parishioners who were, at the time, illiterate. To add to the effect, all of the sculpture on the façades was originally painted and gilded.

The tympanum over the central portal on the west façade, facing the square, vividly illustrates the Last Judgment, with figures of sinners being led off to hell, and good Christians taken to heaven. The sculpture of the right portal shows the coronation of the Virgin Mary, and the left portal shows the lives of saints who were important to Parisians, particularly Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary.

The exteriors of cathedrals and other Gothic churches were also decorated with sculptures of grotesques or monsters. These included the gargoyle, the chimera, a mythical hybrid creature which usually had the body of a lion and the head of a goat, and the strix or stryge, a creature resembling an owl or bat, which was said to eat human flesh. They were part of the visual message for the illiterate worshipers, symbols of the evil and danger that threatened those who did not follow the teachings of the church.

The gargoyles, which were added about 1240, had a more practical purpose. They were the rain spouts of the cathedral, designed to divide the torrent of water which poured from the roof after rain, and to project it outwards as far as possible from the buttresses and the walls and windows where it might erode the mortar binding the stone. To produce many thin streams rather than a torrent of water, a large number of gargoyles were used, so they were also designed to be a decorative element of the architecture. The rainwater ran from the roof into lead gutters, then down channels on the flying buttresses, then along a channel cut in the back of the gargoyle and out of the mouth away from the cathedral.

Amid all the religious figures, some of the sculptural decoration was devoted to illustrating medieval science and philosophy. The central portal of the west façade is decorated with carved figures holding circular plaques with symbols of transformation taken from alchemy. The central pillar of the central door of Notre-Dame features a statue of a woman on a throne holding a scepter in her left hand, and in her right hand, two books, one open (symbol of public knowledge), and the other closed (esoteric knowledge), along with a ladder with seven steps, symbolizing the seven steps alchemists followed in trying to transform ordinary metals into gold. On each side of the west façade, there are statues of Ecclesia and Synagoga (Church and Synagogue).

Many of the statues, particularly the grotesques, were removed from the façade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or were destroyed during the French Revolution. They were replaced with figures in the Gothic style, designed by Viollet-le-Duc, during the nineteenth-century restoration.

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  Illustration of the Last Judgment,
  central portal of west façade

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  The martyr Saint Denis, holding his head, over the Portal of the Virgin

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  The serpent tempts Adam and Eve; on the Portal of the Virgin

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  Archangel Michael and Satan weighing souls during the Last Judgment (central portal, west façade)

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  A strix on the west façade

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  Gargoyles were the rainspouts of the cathedral

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  Chimera on the façade

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  Allegory of alchemy, central portal

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  Ecclesia and Synagoga, statues on each side of the west façade

Stained glass – rose windows

The stained glass windows of Notre-Dame, particularly the three rose windows, are among the most famous features of the cathedral. The west rose window, over the portals, was the first and smallest of the roses in Notre-Dame. It is 9.6 meters (31 ft) in diameter, and was made in about 1225, with the pieces of glass set in a thick circular stone frame. None of the original glass remains in this window; it was recreated in the nineteenth century.

The two transept windows are larger and contain a greater proportion of glass than the rose on the west façade, because the new system of buttresses made the nave walls thinner and stronger. The north rose was created in about 1250, and the south rose in about 1260. The south rose in the transept is 12.9 meters (42 ft) in diameter; with the claire-voie surrounding it, a total of 19 meters (62 ft). It was given to the cathedral by King Louis IX of France, known as Saint Louis.

The south rose has 94 medallions, arranged in four circles, depicting scenes from the life of Christ and those who witnessed his time on earth. The inner circle has twelve medallions showing the twelve apostles. During later restorations, some of these original medallions were moved to circles farther out. The next two circles depict celebrated martyrs and virgins. The fourth circle shows twenty angels, and saints important to Paris, such as Saint Denis, Margaret the Virgin with a dragon, and Saint Eustace. The third and fourth circles also have some depictions of Old Testament subjects. The third circle has some medallions with scenes from the New Testament Gospel of Matthew which date from the last quarter of the twelfth century. These are the oldest glass in the window.

Additional scenes in the corners around the rose window include Jesus' Descent into Hell, Adam and Eve, and the Resurrection of Christ. Saint Peter and Saint Paul are at the bottom of the window, and Mary Magdalene and John the Apostle at the top.

Above the rose was a window depicting Christ triumphant seated in the sky, surrounded by his Apostles. Below are sixteen windows with painted images of Prophets. These were painted during the restoration in the nineteenth century by Alfred Gérenthe, under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, based upon a similar window at Chartres Cathedral.

The south rose had a difficult history. In 1543 it was damaged by the settling of the masonry walls, and not restored until 1725–1727. It was seriously damaged in the French Revolution of 1830. Rioters burned the residence of the archbishop, next to the cathedral, and many of the panes were destroyed. The window was rebuilt by Viollet-le-Duc in 1861 who rotated it by fifteen degrees to give it a clear vertical and horizontal axis, and replaced the destroyed pieces of glass with new glass in the same style. The window now contains both medieval and nineteenth-century glass.

In the 1960s, after three decades of debate, it was decided to replace many of the nineteenth-century grisaille windows in the nave designed by Viollet-le-Duc with new windows. The new windows, made by Jacques Le Chevallier, are without human figures and use abstract designs and color to try to recreate the luminosity of the cathedral's interior in the thirteenth century.

The fire left the three great medieval rose windows mostly intact, but with some damage. The rector of the cathedral noted that one rose window would have to be dismantled, as it was unstable and at risk. Most of the other damaged windows were of much less historical value.

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  The earliest rose window, on the west façade (about 1225)

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  The west rose window (about 1225)

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  North rose window (about 1250)

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  North rose window including lower 18 vertical windows

Burials and crypts

Unlike some other French cathedrals, Notre-Dame was originally constructed without a crypt. In the medieval period, burials were made directly into the floor of the church, or in above-ground sarcophagi, some with tomb effigies (French: gisant). High-ranking clergy and some royals were buried in the choir and apse, and many others, including lower-ranking clergy and lay people, were buried in the nave or chapels. There is no surviving complete record of the burials.

In 1699, many of the choir tombs were disturbed or covered over during a major renovation project. Remains which were exhumed were reburied in a common tomb beside the high altar. In 1711, a small crypt measuring about six by six meters (20 by 20 ft) was dug out in the middle of the choir which was used as a burial vault for the archbishops, if they had not requested to be buried elsewhere. It was during this excavation that the first-century Pillar of the Boatmen was discovered. In 1758, three more crypts were dug in the Chapel of Saint-Georges to be used for burials of canons of Notre-Dame. In 1765, a larger crypt was built under the nave to be used for burials of canons, beneficiaries, chaplains, cantors, and choirboys. Between 1771 and 1773, the cathedral floor was repaved with black and white marble tiles, which covered over most of the remaining tombs. This prevented many of these tombs from being disturbed during the French Revolution.

In 1858, the choir crypt was expanded to stretch most of the length of the choir. During this project, many medieval tombs were rediscovered. Likewise the nave crypt was also rediscovered in 1863 when a larger vault was dug out to install a vault heater. Many other tombs are also located in the chapels.

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  Eudes de Sully was the first bishop to be buried in Notre-Dame. His copper-covered sarcophagus was placed in the middle of the choir where it remained for almost five centuries.

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  The tomb of bishop Matifort (died 1304) located behind the high altar is the only surviving medieval funerary sculpture at Notre-Dame.

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  Burial vault under the choir of Notre-Dame, 1746c. 1746. Pictured left to right are the tombs of Archbishops Vintimille and Bellefonds, the funerary urn of Archbishop Noailles, and two unidentified tombs.

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  The tomb of Archbishop Affre (1793–1848) in the Chapel of Saint-Denis. The sculpture depicts the archbishop's mortal wounding during the June Days uprising while holding an olive branch as a sign of peace. The inscription reads Puisse mon sang être le dernier versé! ("May my blood be the last shed!").

Great organ

The great organ

One of the earliest organs at Notre-Dame was built in 1403 by Frédéric Schambantz. It was rebuilt many times over the course of 300 years; 12 pipes and some wood survive from this ancient instrument. It was replaced between 1730 and 1738 by François Thierry, then once again rebuilt by François-Henri Clicquot. During the mid-nineteenth-century restoration of the cathedral by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll used pipework from earlier instruments to build a new organ, which was first played in December 1867, celebrating the Christmas season.

In 1904, Charles Mutin modified and added several stops upon the suggestions of titular organist Louis Vierne. In 1924, the installation of an electric blower was financed by Rolls-Royce CEO Claude Johnson. An extensive restoration and cleaning was carried out by Joseph Beuchet in 1932 which mostly included changes to the Récit. Between 1959 and 1963, the mechanical action with Barker levers was replaced with an electric action by Jean Hermann, and a new organ console was installed.

The stoplist was gradually modified by Robert Boisseau, who in 1968 added three chamade stops (8′, 4′, and 2′/16′) and by Jean-Loup Boisseau after 1975, all upon the orders of Pierre Cochereau. In autumn 1983, the electric combination system was disconnected due to short-circuit risk.

Between 1990 and 1992, Jean-Loup Boisseau, Bertrand Cattiaux, Philippe Émeriau, Michel Giroud, and the Société Synaptel revised and augmented the instrument. A new frame for the Jean Hermann console was created. Between 2012 and 2014, Bertrand Cattiaux and Pascal Quoirin restored, cleaned, and modified the organ. The stop and key action was upgraded, a new frame for selected components of the Hermann-Boisseau-Cattiaux console was created, a new enclosed division ("Résonnance expressive," using pipework from the former "Petite Pédale" by Boisseau, which can now be used as a floating division), the organ case and the façade pipes were restored, and a general tuning was carried out. The current organ has 115 stops (156 ranks) on five manuals and pedal, and more than 8,000 pipes.

In addition to the great organ in the west end, the quire of the cathedral carries a medium-sized choir organ of 2 manuals, 30 stops, and 37 ranks in a nineteenth-century case from the 1960s. During the fire of 2019, it was heavily damaged by waterlogging, but is at least partially reusable. It also had a 5-stop single-manual continuo organ, which was completely destroyed by water from firefighters.

It was reported that the great organ itself suffered very little damage (mostly to one Principal 32' pipe and substantial dust) in the fire of April 2019. Restoration of the organ to its state before the fire involved removing the keyboard, disassembling the pipes and storing them in waterproof containers, and cleaning each piece before reassembling and tuning.

Organist

The position of titular organist ("head" or "chief" organist; French: titulaires des grandes orgues) of the great organ of Notre-Dame is considered one of the most prestigious organist posts in France, along with the post of titular organist of Saint Sulpice in Paris, Cavaillé-Coll's largest instrument.

After the death of Pierre Cochereau, the cathedral authorities controversially decided to return to the Clicquot practice of having several titulaires, and also to guarantee that no one organist would have so much influence over the organ.

Bells

Notre-Dame currently has ten bells. The two largest bells, Emmanuel and Marie, are mounted in the south tower. The eight others; Gabriel, Anne Geneviève, Denis, Marcel, Étienne, Benoît-Joseph, Maurice, and Jean-Marie; are mounted in the north tower. In addition to accompanying regular activities at the cathedral, the bells have also rung to commemorate events of national and international significance, such as the armistice of November 11, 1918, the liberation of Paris, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the September 11 attacks.

The bells are made with bronze for its resonance and resistance to corrosion. During the medieval period, they were often founded on the grounds of the cathedral so they would not need to be transported long distances. According to tradition, the bishop of Paris held a ceremony in which he blessed and baptized the bells, and a godparent formally bestowed a name on the bell. Most of the cathedral's early bells were named after the person who donated them, but they were also named after biblical figures, saints, bishops, and others.

After the baptism, the bells were hoisted into the towers through circular openings in the vaulted ceilings and mounted to headstocks to allow the bells to swing. Notre-Dame's bells swing on a straight swinging axis, meaning the axis of rotation is just above the crown of the bell. This style of ringing produces a clearer tone, as the clapper strikes the bell on the upswing, called a flying clapper. It also causes horizontal forces, which can be up to one and a half times the weight of the bell. For this reason the bells are mounted within wooden belfries which are recessed from the towers' stone walls. These absorb the horizontal forces and prevent the bells from damaging the relatively brittle stonework. The current belfries date to the nineteenth-century restoration.

Before the French Revolution, it was common for the bells to break, and they were often removed for repairs or to be entirely recast, and sometimes renamed. The bell Guillaume, for example, was renamed three times and recast five times between 1230 and 1770.

The practice of bell-ringing at Notre-Dame is recorded as early as 1198. By the end of the fourteenth century the bells were marking the civil hours, and in 1472 they began to call to prayer for the Angelus three times a day, both practices which continue today. During the French Revolution, most of the cathedral's bells were removed and melted down. Many of them bore the names of the medieval bells, and were relatively recent recastings made from most of the same metal. During the nineteenth-century restoration, four new bells were made for the north tower. These were replaced in 2012 with nine as part of the cathedral's 850th anniversary celebration.

In addition to the main bells, the cathedral also had smaller secondary bells. These included a carillon in the medieval flèche, three clock bells on the north transept in the eighteenth century, and six bells added in the nineteenth century – three in the reconstructed flèche and three within the roof to be heard in the sanctuary. These were destroyed during the 2019 fire.

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  Circular utility door (right of center) in the ceiling below the north tower made for raising and lowering bells

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  The bourdon Emmanuel, Notre-Dame's largest and oldest bell, cast in 1686

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  The four nineteenth-century bells which were retired in 2012

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  Nine new bells exhibited in the nave in February 2013

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  The second bourdon Marie mounted in the south belfry

Clock

One of four clock faces of Notre-Dame's nineteenth-century clock (right). Chimes for the eighteenth-century clock were once held in a north transept turret, similar to the one pictured left on the south transept.

The first clocks used at Notre-Dame were clepsydras (water clocks). These were used to tell the hours, which were marked by striking bells. In the fourteenth century Notre-Dame had two clepsydras running simultaneously, one in the cloister and one in the church itself. A lay chamberlain was responsible for keeping the clocks filled with water and to notify a churchwarden when it was time to strike the bells for the hour.

In 1766, Guillot de Montjoye and Jean-Bernard de Vienne, canons and stewards of the church fabric, donated a mechanical clock to the cathedral. The movement was installed in a glass cabinet in the gallery beneath the north rose window and rang three bells outside above the north portal. Between 1812 and 1813, the clock and bells were moved to the north tower. A 1.34-meter (4.4 ft) clock face was installed inside the church below the organ platform.

During Viollet-le-Duc's restoration in the nineteenth century, a new clock was made. The 1867 Collin-Wagner movement, measuring 2 meters (6.6 ft) across, was located in the forest underneath the central flèche within a glass-enclosed room. This controlled four dormer clock faces visible on the transept roofs, two on each side. This clock was destroyed by the 2019 fire.

Shortly after the fire, French clockmaker Jean-Baptiste Vior discovered an almost identical 1867 Collin-Wagner movement in storage at Sainte-Trinité Church in northern Paris. Olivier Chandez, who had been responsible for the upkeep of Notre-Dame's clock, described the find as "almost a miracle." The clock could not be installed in Notre-Dame, but it could be used to create a new clock for Notre-Dame to the same specifications as the one which was destroyed.

Ownership

Until the French Revolution, Notre-Dame was the property of the archbishop of Paris and therefore the Catholic Church. It was nationalized on November 2, 1789 and since then has been the property of the French state. Under the Concordat of 1801, use of the cathedral was returned to the Church, but not ownership.

Legislation from 1833 and 1838 clarified that cathedrals were maintained at the expense of the French government. This was reaffirmed in the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State, designating the Catholic Church as having the exclusive right to use it for religious purposes in perpetuity. Notre-Dame is one of seventy historic churches in France with this status. The archdiocese is responsible for paying the employees, for security, heating and cleaning, and for ensuring that the cathedral is open free of charge to visitors. The archdiocese does not receive subsidies from the French state.

Gallery

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  Notre-Dame at the end of the nineteenth century

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  An 1853 photo by Charles Nègre of Henri Le Secq next to Le Stryge

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  Nineteenth-century vestments

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  A wide angle view of Notre-Dame's western façade

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  Notre-Dame's façade showing the Portal of the Virgin, Portal of the Last Judgment, and Portal of St-Anne

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  A 2010 view of Notre-Dame from Tour Montparnasse

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  A wide angle view of Notre-Dame's western façade

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  Virgin of the pillar, fourteenth century. The Statue of Virgin and Child inside Notre-Dame de Paris

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  Notre-Dame's high altar with the kneeling statues of Louis XIII and Louis XIV

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  South rose window of Notre-Dame

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  Flying buttresses of Notre-Dame

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  Memorial tablet to the British Empire dead of the First World War

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  Tympanum of the Last Judgment

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  Statue of Joan of Arc in Notre-Dame's interior

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  Close look of the details on the Tympanum of the Last Judgment (2016)

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  Façade of Notre-Dame

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  French road system's Point Zéro spot on the ground in front of Notre-Dame (since 1924)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Aubert, Marcel. Notre-Dame De Paris: Sa Place Dans L'Histoire De L'Architecture Du Xii Au Xiv Siecle. Librairie Renouard, 1929.
• Busson, Didier. Carte archéologique de la Gaule: 75, Paris. Paris, France: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1998. ISBN 978-2877540568
• De Torigni, Robert. Chronique de Robert de Torigni, Abbé du Mont-Saint-Michel. Wentworth Press, (original 1873). ISBN 978-0274769902
• Doré, Joseph (ed.). Notre-Dame de Paris. PDV Nuee Bleue, 2012. ISBN 978-2809907988
• Follett, Ken. Notre-Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals. Viking, 2019. ISBN 978-1984880253
• Gilbert, Antoine P. Description Historique De La Basilique Métropolitaine De Paris: Ornée De Gravures... Wentworth Press, 2019, (original 1821). ISBN 978-1010931133
• Henriet, Jacques. L'aube de l'architecture gothique. Presses Universitaires de Franche Comte, 2005. ISBN 978-2848671178
• Herrick, James A. The Making of the New Spirituality: The Eclipse of the Western Religious Tradition. InterVarsity Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0830832798
• Lassus, Jean-Baptiste, and Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. Projet de restauration de Notre-Dame de Paris. HardPress Publishing, 2024 (original 1843). ISBN 978-1318843053
• Laurent, Xavier. Grandeur et misère du patrimoine: d'André Malraux à Jacques Duhamel. Librairie Droz, 2003. ISBN 978-2900791608
• Lissagaray, Prosper-Olivier. Histoire de la Commune de 1871. Wentworth Press, 2018 (original 1876). ISBN 978-0274547234
• Lours, Mathieu. Dictionnaire des Cathédrales. Éditions Jean-Paul Gisserot, 2018. ISBN 978-2755807653
• Mignon, Olivier. Architecture des Cathédrales Gothiques. Éditions Ouest-France, 2015. ISBN 978-2737365355
• Renault, Christophe, and Christophe Lazé. Les Styles de l'Architecture et du Mobilier. Gisserot, 2020. ISBN 978-2755808667
• Sandron, Dany, and Andrew Tallon. Notre Dame Cathedral: Nine Centuries of History. Penn State University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0271086224
• Trintignac, Andre, and Marie-Jeanne Coloni. Découvrir Notre-Dame de Paris. Editions du Cerf, 1984. ISBN 978-2204020879
• Viollet-Le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel. Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle (6/9). Tredition Classics, 2012 (original 1863). ISBN 978-3849135973
• Viollet-Le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel. Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle (9/9). Legare Street Press, 2023 (original 1868). ISBN 1021489050
• Wenzler, Claude. Les Cathédrales Gothiques. Éditions Ouest-France, 2022. ISBN 978-2737386183
• Williamson, Paul. Gothic Sculpture, 1140–1300. Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0300063387

External links

All links retrieved December 31, 2024.

• Notre-Dame de Paris (Notre-Dame of Paris)
• Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris
• Reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral Paris je t'aime
• Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Former Abbey of Saint-Rémi and Palace of Tau, Reims UNESCO World Heritage Convention

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