Notre-Dame
The Gothic loftiness of Notre-Dame dominates the Seine and the
Ile-de-la-Cite as well as the history of Paris.On the spot , which was followed
by a Christian basilica and then a Romanesque church ( The Cathedral of
St.Etienne founded by Childebert in 528) .Maurice de Sully , bishop of Paris
decided to build a new cathedral for the expanding population , dedicated to the Virgin Mary
.Although construction started in 1163, it was not completed until roughly 180
years later in about 1345.Built in an age of illiteracy, the cathedral retells
the stories of the Bible in its portals, paintings, and stained glass .The
appearance of the interior was radically transformed in the mid-13th
century when the small clerestory windows typical of the Early Gothic style
were enlarged downward and filled with High Gothic tracery .The enlargement
caused the removal of the unusual triforium.Originally the interior had the
four-story elevation common to many Early Gothic churches, and the triforium
had large round openings instead of the normal arcades.
Seen from the exterior , the building appears
to be High Gothic .
Notable features include the profunsion of colonnettes and tracery screens , the horizontal and vertical ordering of the
facades , the impsing size of the rose windows and the delicacy of the flying
buttresses.
In his restoration of the cathedral ( begun in
1844 and lasting 23 years), Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc reinstated the
triforium and small clerestory windows in the eastern bay of the nave.
The
sculpture on the west façade , badly damaged during the French
Revolution , was also restored during this period .
Starting in 1991, a 10 years program of general maintenance and
restoration was initiated.While works continues , sections of the
structure are likely to be shrouded by scaffolds .
For a look at the upper parts of the church , the river and much of
Paris, climb the 387 steps yo the top of one of the towers.The south tower
holds Notre-Dame`s 13-ton bell which is rung on special occasions .
