Description
Notre-Dame is the Gothic cathedral of Paris, on the Île de la Cité, and one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Begun in 1163 and finished in 1345, it was France's most visited monument, with about 12 million visitors a year before the fire of 2019.
On the evening of 15 April 2019 the world watched it burn live. The spire collapsed and the "forest" of oak beams under the roof was gone, yet the towers, the rose windows and the vaults held. In December 2024, after five years of work, the cathedral reopened.
The west front is the face everyone knows: two massive towers finished around 1250, a row of statues of biblical kings, and carved portals. Between the towers sits the central rose window, completed in 1220. Two more rose windows, north and south, fill the interior with colored light.
Up above, along the roofline galleries, are the gargoyles and chimeras. The gargoyles are not only monsters: they are rain spouts. Notre-Dame also pioneered rib vaults and flying buttresses, which allowed higher, thinner walls and larger windows.
Inside, the Great Organ has over 8,000 pipes and dates back to the 18th century. The cathedral also keeps relics deposited by Louis IX: the Crown of Thorns, bought by Saint Louis, and a sliver and a nail from the True Cross.
It had come close to the end before. During the Revolution it became a Temple of Reason, then a food warehouse. The crowd beheaded the 28 kings of the facade, taking biblical kings for French ones.
By the 1830s Paris officials considered pulling it down. Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame to save it, and the book's success did the rest: in 1844 the restoration began.
It was led by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who repaired and invented in the Gothic spirit, adding a new spire and the chimeras of the gallery up above. Of the copper apostles around it, only Saint Thomas looked up at the spire. He had the architect's face.
Building it took almost two centuries, from 1163, under Bishop Maurice de Sully. Here Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804, and in 1944 a Magnificat celebrated the liberation of Paris. The five-year restoration after the fire cost about $739 million.
Don't miss
• The rose windows.
• The Great Organ.
• The gargoyles.
• The Crown of Thorns.
Did you know?
• Many of the beheaded kings' heads turned up in 1977 during an excavation nearby: they are in the Musée de Cluny.
• The rooster on top of the spire holds relics against lightning. The old one was found in the rubble after the fire.
• In 1971 Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the two towers.
On the evening of 15 April 2019 the world watched it burn live. The spire collapsed and the "forest" of oak beams under the roof was gone, yet the towers, the rose windows and the vaults held. In December 2024, after five years of work, the cathedral reopened.
The west front is the face everyone knows: two massive towers finished around 1250, a row of statues of biblical kings, and carved portals. Between the towers sits the central rose window, completed in 1220. Two more rose windows, north and south, fill the interior with colored light.
Up above, along the roofline galleries, are the gargoyles and chimeras. The gargoyles are not only monsters: they are rain spouts. Notre-Dame also pioneered rib vaults and flying buttresses, which allowed higher, thinner walls and larger windows.
Inside, the Great Organ has over 8,000 pipes and dates back to the 18th century. The cathedral also keeps relics deposited by Louis IX: the Crown of Thorns, bought by Saint Louis, and a sliver and a nail from the True Cross.
It had come close to the end before. During the Revolution it became a Temple of Reason, then a food warehouse. The crowd beheaded the 28 kings of the facade, taking biblical kings for French ones.
By the 1830s Paris officials considered pulling it down. Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame to save it, and the book's success did the rest: in 1844 the restoration began.
It was led by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who repaired and invented in the Gothic spirit, adding a new spire and the chimeras of the gallery up above. Of the copper apostles around it, only Saint Thomas looked up at the spire. He had the architect's face.
Building it took almost two centuries, from 1163, under Bishop Maurice de Sully. Here Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804, and in 1944 a Magnificat celebrated the liberation of Paris. The five-year restoration after the fire cost about $739 million.
Don't miss
• The rose windows.
• The Great Organ.
• The gargoyles.
• The Crown of Thorns.
Did you know?
• Many of the beheaded kings' heads turned up in 1977 during an excavation nearby: they are in the Musée de Cluny.
• The rooster on top of the spire holds relics against lightning. The old one was found in the rubble after the fire.
• In 1971 Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the two towers.