Notre Dame Cathedral
Notre Dame, french expression for "Our
Lady, the Virgin Mary", is the
most famous catholic cathedral and a very
well-known landmark in Paris. It is
otherwise known as the Cathedrale de
Notre Dame de Paris by the French. It
stands on the Ile de la cite, a larger
of two islands in the Seine River. It is
considered a masterpiece of gothic
architecture in France. Maurice de Sully was
the bishop of Paris at the time,
and started the cathedral's construction in
1163. The construcion and
design were done by the best artists around and was
completed around 1345.
Jean de Chelles and Pierre de Montreuil oversaw and
directed the
construction. It was not finished until the beginning of the 13th
century.
During the Revolution (the 1700's), it was heavily destroyed by
mobs,
however, it was restored beginning in 1841 by Viollet le Duc. He added
chimeras
and gargoyles to the tower walls. The chimeras were being built as
decoration,
and the gargoyles as rain gutters. The facade of the cathedral is
composed of
several levels crowning three great portals: the Portal of the
Last Judgement,
the Portal to the Virgin, and the Portal to Saint Anne. Above
this is the
Gallery of Kings, which consists of 28 statues of kings of
Judah and Israel.
Every year about 500,000 visitors make the climb of the
380-stepped stairway
that leads to the peak of the cathedral. Their reward
for making the long climb
is a great view of Paris and a look at "Emmanuel",
the 13 ton bell.
The bell was operated by pedals that required the energy
of 8 men, but today,
"Emmanuel" is rung electronically. The Rose Window is
one of the only
original stained-glass windows left in the cathedral. Most of
the windows were
removed and rebuilt after World War 2. These are a wonderful
and beautiful part
of the cathedral. Notre Dame is the setting for the famous
film "The
Hunchback of Notre Dame". The cathedral itself is 130 meters
long, 48
meters wide, and 35 meters tall. Although many other cathedrals have
been
designed to recreate the structure of Notre Dame, the cathedral in Paris
is
still considered the original materpiece of Gothic Art.