Notre-Dame Cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary (“Our Lady”), is one of the finest examples of French Gothic Architecture. Its construction began in 1163 with the laying of the cornerstone in the presence of King Louis VII and Pope Alexander III. It was largely completed by 1260, though modified in succeeding centuries.
During the French Revolution, Notre-Dame suffered extensive ruin; much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. Since 1905, Notre-Dame, like the other cathedrals in France, has been owned by the French government, with the exclusive rights granted to the Roman Catholic Church.
During the liberation of Paris 1944, the cathedral suffered some minor damage from stray bullets. Charles de Gaulle celebrated the Liberation of Paris with a special Mass at Notre-Dame.
January 1969, vandals placed a North Vietnamese flag at the top of the flèche, and blocked the stairway leading to it. In 1971, Philippe Petit* walked across a tight-rope between Notre-Dame’s two bell towers.
In 2019, the cathedral caught fire, destroying the flèche** and the “forest” of oak roof beams supporting the lead roof *** Speculation was that the fire was linked to renovation work. The fire broke out in the cathedral attic around 6 p.m. Immediately, smoke detectors signaled the fire to a cathedral employee, who did not call the fire department but instead sent a guard to investigate. The guard was sent to the wrong location and reported there was no fire. About 15 minutes later the error was discovered. By the time the guard had climbed the 300 steps to the cathedral attic, the fire was going strong.
The main structure was 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. The Great Organ, which has over 8,000 pipes and was built in the 18th century, was also saved but damaged by water.
In 2022, a preventive dig before the construction of a scaffold for reconstructing the flèche unearthed several statues and tombs under the cathedral. One of the discoveries was a 14th-century lead sarcophpagus found 65 ft. below where the transept crosses the church’s 12th-century nave. France’s National Preventive Archaeological Research Institute announced that the sarcophagus was taken to a research institute for study. Scientists examined the casket using an endoscopic camera, revealing the upper part of a skeleton. An opening was discovered below Notre-Dame, probably dating back to when it was first under construction. They found fragments of a choir screen from the 13th century that had been destroyed in the early 18th century.
In March 2023, archaeologists uncovered thousands of metal staples in different parts of the cathedral, some dating back to the early 1160s. Their conclusion? Notre-Dame is the first known Gothic cathedral where iron was used to bind stones.
The cathedral reopened at the end of 2024 in a ceremony attended by 1,500 world leaders and dignitaries including President-elect Donald Trump, First Lady Jill Biden, Prince William, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The exteriors of Gothic cathedrals were decorated with sculptures of grotesques, or monsters. They were part of the visual message for those who couldn’t read that they were symbols of the evil and danger that threatened those who did not follow church teachings.
The gargoyles, added in about 1240, also had a more practical purpose. They were rain spouts designed to divide the torrent of water which poured from the roof after rain, to project the rain as far as possible from the buttresses and the walls and windows where it might erode mortar binding the stone. .
Many of the statues, particularly the grotesques, were removed from the façade in the 17th and 18th centuries or were destroyed during the French Revolution. They were replaced with Gothic figures during the 19th-century restoration.
Notre-Dame currently has ten bronze bells. The practice of bell-ringing at Notre-Dame is recorded as early as 1198. In addition to the main bells, there were smaller secondary bells which were destroyed during the 2019 fire.
About 12 million people visit Notre-Dame annually.
* Philippe Petit, now 76, is a French highwire artist who gained fame for unauthorized highwire walks between the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral and Sydney Harbour Bridge, as well as between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
In 1989, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, Petit walk an inclined wire strung from the Place du Trocadéroto, crossing the Seine to the second level of the Eiffel Tower,. He was also adept at equestrianism, jugging, fencing, carpentry, rock-climbing and bullfighting.
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***One thousand mature trees were chosen from French forests, each a diameter of 20 to 35 in and a height of 26 to 46 ft. Once cut, the trees had to dry for 12 to 18 months.
