Notre-Dame de Paris

Notre-Dame de Paris (French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris French: [nɔtʁ(ə) dam də paʁi] : "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris.

The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary ("Our Lady"), is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Several attributes set it apart from the earlier Romanesque style, including its pioneering use of the rib vault and flying buttress, its enormous and colourful rose windows, and the naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration. Notre-Dame is also exceptional for its three pipe organs (one historic) and its immense church bells.

The construction of the cathedral began in 1163 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and was largely completed by 1260, though it was modified in succeeding centuries. In the 1790s, during the French Revolution, Notre-Dame suffered extensive desecration; much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. In the 19th century, the cathedral hosted the coronation of Napoleon and the funerals of many of the French Republic's presidents. The 1831 publication of Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris (English title: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) inspired interest which led to restoration between 1844 and 1864, supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. On 26 August 1944, the Liberation of Paris from German occupation was celebrated in Notre-Dame with the singing of the Magnificat. Beginning in 1963, the cathedral's façade was cleaned of soot and grime. Another cleaning and restoration project was carried out between 1991 and 2000. A fire in April 2019 caused serious damage, closing the cathedral for extensive and costly repairs; it reopened in December 2024.

Notre-Dame is a widely recognised symbol of both the city of Paris and the French nation. In 1805, Pope Pius VII awarded it honorary status as a minor basilica. As the cathedral of the archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame contains the cathedra or seat of the archbishop of Paris (currently Laurent Ulrich). In the early 21st century, about 12 million people visited Notre-Dame annually, making it the most visited monument in Paris.

Since 1905, Notre-Dame, like the other cathedrals in France, has been owned by the French government, with the exclusive rights of use granted to the French Roman Catholic Church. The French government is responsible for its maintenance.

Over time, the cathedral has gradually been stripped of many decorations and artworks. It still contains Gothic, Baroque, and 19th-century sculptures, 17th- and early 18th-century altarpieces, and some of the most important relics in Christendom, including the crown of thorns, and a sliver and nail from the True Cross.

Key dates

4th century – Cathedral of Saint Étienne, dedicated to Saint Stephen, built just west of present cathedral

• 1163 – Bishop Maurice de Sully begins construction of new cathedral.
• 1182 or 1185 – Choir completed, clerestory with two levels: upper level of upright windows with pointed arches, still without tracery, lower level of small rose windows.
• c. 1200 – Construction of nave, with flying buttresses, completed.
• c. 1210–1220 – Construction of towers begins.
• c. 1210–1220 – Two new traverses join towers with nave. West rose window complete in 1220.
• After 1220 – New flying buttresses added to choir walls, remodeling of the clerestories: pointed arched windows are enlarged downward, replacing the triforia, and get tracery.
• 1235–1245 – Chapels constructed between buttresses of nave and choir.
• 1250–1260 – North transept lengthened by Jean de Chelles to provide more light. North rose window constructed.
• 1270 – South transept and rose window completed by Pierre de Montreuil.
• 1699 – Beginning of major redecoration of interior in Louis XIV style by Hardouin Mansart and Robert de Cotte.
• 1725–1727 – South rose window, poorly built, is reconstructed. Later entirely rebuilt in 1854.
• 1790 – In the French Revolution the Revolutionary Paris Commune removes all bronze, lead, and precious metals from the cathedral to be melted down.
• 1793 – The cathedral is converted into a Temple of Reason and then Temple of the Supreme Being.
• 1801–1802 – With the Concordat of 1801, Napoleon restores the use of the cathedral (though not ownership) to the Catholic Church.
• 1804 – On 2 December, Napoleon crowns himself Emperor at Notre-Dame.
• 1844–1864 – Major restoration by Jean-Baptiste Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc with additions in the spirit of the original Gothic style.
• 1871 – In final days of the Paris Commune, the Communards prepared to burn the cathedral, but abandoned their plan since it would necessarily also burn the crowded neighboring hospital for the elderly.
• 1944 – On 26 August, General Charles de Gaulle celebrates the Liberation of Paris with a special Mass at Notre-Dame.
• 1963 – Culture Minister André Malraux begins the cleaning of centuries of grime and soot from the cathedral façade.
• 2019 – On 15 April, a fire destroys a large part of the roof and the flèche.
• 2021 – Reconstruction begins, which lasted 3 years.
• 2024 – Reopening ceremonies 7–8 December. On 13 December 2024 the revered Crown of Thorns relic was returned to the cathedral.

History

It is believed that before the arrival of Christianity in France, a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter stood on the site of Notre-Dame. Evidence for this includes the Pillar of the Boatmen, discovered beneath the cathedral in 1710. In the 4th or 5th century, a large early Christian church, the Cathedral of Saint Étienne, was built on the site, close to the royal palace. The entrance was situated about 40 metres (130 ft) west of the present west front of Notre-Dame, and the apse was located about where the west façade is today. It was roughly half the size of the later Notre-Dame, 70 metres (230 ft) long—and separated into nave and four aisles by marble columns, then decorated with mosaics.

The last church before the cathedral of Notre-Dame was a Romanesque remodelling of Saint-Étienne that, although enlarged and remodelled, was found to be unfit for the growing population of Paris. A baptistery, the Church of Saint-John-le-Rond, built about 452, was located on the north side of the west front of Notre-Dame until the work of Jacques-Germain Soufflot in the 18th century.

In 1160, the bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, decided to build a new and much larger church. He summarily demolished the earlier cathedral and recycled its materials. Sully decided that the new church should be built in the Gothic style, which had been inaugurated at the royal abbey of Saint Denis in the late 1130s.

Construction

The chronicler Jean de Saint-Victor recorded in the Memorial Historiarum that the construction of Notre-Dame began between 24 March and 25 April 1163 with the laying of the cornerstone in the presence of King Louis VII and Pope Alexander III. Four phases of construction took place under bishops Maurice de Sully and Eudes de Sully (not related to Maurice), according to masters whose names have been lost. Analysis of vault stones that fell in the 2019 fire shows that they were quarried in Vexin, a county northwest of Paris, and presumably brought up the Seine by boat.

Five years after the devastating fire, Notre-Dame de Paris formally reopened with a two hour ceremony inside its newly renovated interior following an estimated $739 million restoration. This was then followed by an event that was attended by global leaders including French president Emmanuel Macron and US president-elect Donald Trump. This celebration honoured the successful completion of the 2,000-plus day rebuilding effort that destroyed the spire and wooden roof structure. Macron hailed the cathedral as a metaphor for the nation's ability to "accomplish the impossible".

The first phase began with the construction of the choir and its two ambulatories. According to Robert of Torigni, the choir was completed in 1177 and the high altar consecrated on 19 May 1182 by Cardinal Henri de Château-Marçay, the Papal legate in Paris, and Maurice de Sully. The second phase, from 1182 to 1190, concerned the construction of the four sections of the nave behind the choir and its aisles to the height of the clerestories. It began after the completion of the choir but ended before the final allotted section of the nave was finished. Beginning in 1190, the bases of the façade were put in place, and the first traverses were completed. Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem called for the Third Crusade in 1185 from the still-incomplete cathedral.