Notre Dame Of Paris
Not the biggest cathedral in the world, the Notre-Dame might be the most well known of every cathedrals. The gothic work of art is located on the Ile de la cité, a little island in the heart of the city.
Notre Dame Church (full name: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, “Our Lady of Paris”) is a lovely cathedral on the the Île de la Cité in The french capital. Begun in 1163 and mostly completed by 1250, Notre Dame is an important example of French Gothic architecture, sculpture and stained glass.
The Notre Dame is the most popular monument in The french capital and in all of France, beating even the Eiffel Tower with thirteen million visitors each year. After a period of neglect, it recaptured the popular imagination when 19th-century writer Victor Hugo immortalized it in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.
Construction
Bishop Maurice de Sully began the structure in 1163. The Church was to be built in the new gothic style and had to reflect Paris’s status as the capital of the Kingdom France. It was the first cathedral built on a monumental scale and became the prototype for upcoming cathedrals in France, like the cathedrals of Amiens, Chartres or else Rheims, just to name the most historic.
The Building
It took until 1345 before the church was completed, partly for the reason that the design was enlarged during construction. The consequence is an overwhelming building, 128m long with two 69 meter tall towers (420 x 226 ft). The spire, which reaches 90m, was added in the nineteenth century by Viollet-le-Duc. The Notre-Dame Cathedral has several large rose windows, the northern thirteenth century window is the most amazing. The massive window has a diameter of 13.1 meter.
The spectacular eastern buttresses are 15m wide. The west side features three wide portals, the gallery of Kings and the well known gargoyles.
Restoration
During the Revolution, many of the cathedral’s statues, gargoyles and interior was removed or demolished. Even the gallery of Kings was cruelly damaged. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century before the Church was fully restored by a Parisian architect, Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. It was restored again between 1991 and 2001.
Address: Place du parvis de Notre Dame, 4th arrondissement
Metro: Cité or Saint-Michel (Line 4)
RER: Saint-Michel (Line C)
Bus: Lines 21, 38, 47, or 85
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