Notre-Dame de Paris, also called Notre-Dame
Cathedral, cathedral church in Paris, France. It is the most famous
of the Gothic cathedrals
of the Middle Ages and
is distinguished for its size, antiquity, and architectural interest.
Notre-Dame lies at the eastern end of the Île de la Cité and was
built on the ruins of two earlier churches, which were themselves predated by a
Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter. The
cathedral was initiated byMaurice de Sully,
bishop of Paris, who about 1160 conceived the idea of converting into a single
building, on a larger scale, the ruins of the two earlier basilicas. The
foundation stone was laid by Pope Alexander III in 1163, and the high altar was
consecrated in 1189. The choir, the western facade, and the nave were completed
by 1250, and porches, chapels, and other embellishments were added over the
next 100 years.
Notre-Dame Cathedral consists of a choir and apse, a short
transept, and a nave flanked by double aisles and square chapels. Its central
spire was added during restoration in the 19th century. The interior of the
cathedral is 427 by 157 feet (130 by 48 metres) in plan, and the roof is 115
feet (35 metres) high. Two massive early Gothic towers (1210–50) crown the
western facade, which is divided into three stories and has its doors adorned
with fine early Gothic carvings and surmounted by a row of figures of Old
Testament kings. The two towers are 223 feet (68 metres) high; the spires with
which they were to be crowned were never added. At the cathedral’s east end,
the apse has large clerestory windows (added 1235–70) and is supported by
single-arch flying buttresses of
the more daring Rayonnant Gothic style, especially notable for their boldness
and grace. The cathedral’s three great rose windows alone
retain their 13th-century glass.
Notre-Dame Cathedral suffered damage and deterioration
through the centuries, and after the French Revolution it was rescued from
possible destruction by Napoleon, who crowned
himself emperor of the French in the cathedral in 1804. Notre-Dame underwent
major restorations by the French architect E.-E.
Viollet-le-Duc in the mid-19th century. The cathedral is the setting
for Victor Hugo’s
historical novel Notre-Dame de Paris (1831).
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