Notre Dame de Paris -Beatriz de la Torre-

Notre-Dame de Paris

                                          

The picture is of the Notre Dame de Paris, which is a Gothic Catholic cathedral located in Paris, France. In English it means Our Lady of Paris. The church was completed by around 1345.

The construction of the cathedral officially began in 1163, but three years earlier, Maurice de Sully (Bishop of Paris), ordered the demolition of the original church. By 1182, the apse and the choir were finished and by 1250, the western towers and the north window were completed. 

Parvis de Notre-Dame in the 17th century

Paris was evangelized in the 3^rd century and one of the first cathedrals was the one dedicated to Saint Stephen, which was located in the current façade of Notre Dame. In the mid-12^th century, under the reign of Louis VII, the bishop De Sully decided to build a new cathedral. This new church would be much bigger than the Saint Stephen and the style would be quite different, too, since new techniques were arising, like the ogival style, commonly known today as the gothic style.

Something very characteristic of the gothic style is the use of the ogives, which is like the roundly end of an object. We can see this in the picture below:

The use of arches is very popular, as well. In the picture below we can appreciate around five layers of arches and each of them has very defined sculptures. This photograph is from the southern door of the west-facing façade.

Something that caught my attention and I found amazing was the story of the spire above. It was built in 1860, when Viollet-le-Duc restored the Notre Dame cathedral; he hired the carpenter Bellu to do this work.

This spire is like the center of the twelve apostles with the symbols of the four evangelists. To make the spire, 500 tons of wood and 250 tons of lead were needed. The interesting part is that at the top of the spire, there is a rooster that holds three relics: part of the Crown of Thorns, one of Saint-Denis’ relics and one of the Sainte-Genevieve’s relics.

Bibliography:

*Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. "The Spire". Diocèse de Paris. Web.15 September, 2010.

*Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. "Building History". Diocèse de Paris. Web.15 September, 2010.

*Cambridge. "Paris, France: Notre Dame". 2004. Web. 15 Septemeber, 2010.

*ShutterStock Images. "France, cathedral Notre-Dame", Web. 15 September, 2010.