Notre Dame Cathedral - Paris

Notre Dame de Paris (French for Our Lady of Paris), also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France.

On the spot where this majestic cathedral now stands, the Romans had built a temple to Jupiter, which was followed by a Christian basilica and then a Romanesque church (the Cathedral of St. Etienne, founded by Childebert in 528).

The building is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in France and in Europe, and the naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are in contrast with earlier Romanesque architecture. The first period of construction dates from 1163 to 1345. 

Notre-Dame has had an eventful history over the centuries. Crusaders prayed there before leaving on their holy wars, and polyphonic music developed in the cathedral. Notre-Dame was pillaged during the French revolution, as were a number of other cathedrals throughout France. Citizens mistook statues of saints above the portals on the west front for representations of their kings, and, in the midst of their revolutionary fervor, took them down. Some of these statues were found in the 1970s, almost two hundred years later, in the Latin Quarter. Many of the cathedral's other treasures were either destroyed or plundered — only the great bells avoided being melted down. Revolutionaries dedicated the cathedral first to the cult of Reason, and then to the cult of the Supreme being. The church interior was used as a warehouse for the storage of food.

Pictures taken in 2008 when  I had the pleasure of visiting Paris

During the 19th century, writer Victor Hugo and artists such as Ingres called attention to the dangerous state of disrepair into which the Cathedral had fallen, raising a new awareness of its artistic value. Whereas 18th-century neoclassicists had virtually ignored the creations of the Middle Ages — and had even replaced the stained glass at Notre-Dame with normal glass, the 19th-century romantics saw that remote period with new eyes and greater appreciation.

In his restoration of the cathedral (begun in 1844 and lasting 23 years), Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc reinstated the triforium and small clerestory windows in the eastern bay of the nave. The sculpture on the west facade, badly damaged during the French Revolution, was also restored during this period.

Besides bringing new life to the windows and the statues, Viollet-le-Duc combined scientific research with his own very personal creative ideas and designed Notre-Dame's spire, a new feature of the building, and the sacristy. Also in the 19th century, Baron Haussmann (Napoléon III's urban planner) evicted those Parisians whose houses cluttered the Cathedral's vicinity. The houses were torn down to permit better views of the edifice.

During the Commune of 1871, the Cathedral was nearly burned by the Communards — and some accounts suggest that indeed a huge mound of chairs was set on fire in its interior. Whatever happened, Notre-Dame survived the Commune essentially unscathed.

Yet it is the art of Notre-Dame, rather than its history, that still awes. The west front contains 28 statues representing the monarchs of Judea and Israel. The three portals depict, the Last Judgment; the Madonna and Child; St. Anne, the Virgin's mother; and Mary's youth until the birth of Jesus. The interior, with its slender, graceful columns, is impressive — there is room for as many as 6,000 worshipers. The three rose windows — to the west, north, and south — are masterful, their colors a glory to behold on a sunny day.

Just magnificent ... unforgettable ...