Notre Dame means ‘our Lady’. Although several cathedrals, basilicas, and churches around the world bear this name, the first association would be of Notre Dame de Paris, the famous medieval cathedral in the very heart of Paris.
Western and Southern Europe – from the tourists’ perspective – is famous for its medieval cathedrals. After having seen many of them, and having made many photos just to recollect memories in the future, today I have a bit lighter approach to sightseeing inside cathedrals. The picture above I made last summer, after a ten-day tour in Northern France. At that time, we visited at least one cathedral daily, so although being close to Notre Dame at the end of the trip, I did not feel the need to enter the interior. It would have been too much. But I have already been there, so if you are the first time in Paris, do not skip it, no matter how tired you are. This place is simply on a must-see list.
This year in February, I made time for a short three-day city break in Paris. This time it was a fully guided tour of a kind ‘Paris for beginners’. And I enjoyed it quite much, even with temperatures around 0 grade Celsius. The Notre Dame interior was naturally on the bucket list.
As in many places in Paris, we had to queue to enter. We were there around 1 pm, queued for half an hour, made the obligatory security check, and then spent another half hour inside. The interior is enormous, austere like in a typical Gothic cathedral. But somehow you feel warm inside – the light entering through colorful stain glass makes it very cozy and picturesque. The ambiance is like on photos below. I did not use either a filter nor a color enhancer on them.
The Notre Dame cathedral was constructed from the late XII to the mid-XIV century. The foundation stone was laid in 1163 during the reign of Louis VII, and the cathedral was largely completed in 1345. The cathedral’s construction was a collaborative effort involving several architects, builders, and craftsmen. Maurice de Sully, the Bishop of Paris, initiated the project, and successive generations of builders contributed to its realization. The choir was the first section to be completed around 1182, and the nave and the western façade were constructed in subsequent decades. While the main construction phase concluded in the 14th century, Notre-Dame continued to evolve through the years. It underwent renovations and alterations, reflecting changing tastes and needs.
It also underwent two waves of vandalism typical for revolutionaries of past ages. In the XVI century, this was the Huguenots, a grouping of Calvinist protestants, who on the crest of reformation damaged and devastated many churches in Western Europe. The Huguenots, as Calvinist Protestants, were iconoclasts, meaning they rejected religious images and symbols. As a result, they often damaged or destroyed religious art, statues, and other visual representations within Catholic churches. The extent of damage likely varied across different regions and churches, depending on the intensity of religious tensions and the zeal of the Huguenot factions involved.
The same happened during the French revolution in the late XVIII century. The revolutionaries, driven by anti-monarchical and anti-religious sentiments, targeted symbols of the ancien régime and the Catholic Church. Notre-Dame, being a prominent religious institution and a symbol of the monarchy, became a target for revolutionary fervor. In 1793, during the most radical phase of the French Revolution, the cathedral suffered significant damage. The revolutionaries repurposed Notre-Dame for secular purposes, renaming it the “Temple of Reason.” Religious artifacts were destroyed, and statues and sculptures were damaged or removed. The cathedral’s interior underwent considerable desecration. The iconic statues of the Kings of Judah on the façade of Notre-Dame were beheaded during this period, and the Gallery of Kings, which represented the monarchs of France, was also a casualty of the revolutionary iconoclasm. Additionally, stained glass windows were broken, and the cathedral’s treasures were plundered.
A popular practice widespread also in other European countries among different kinds of revolutionaries was beheading statues. A saint with no head had seemingly no identity. The practice also concerned reliefs (a relief was not destroyed, but heads of selected figures were cut off) and stained glass pictures (the heads of selected individuals were replaced with white glass) >>>. If you travel to France, take a closer look at pieces of art that decorate churches.
The contemporary look of the Notre Dame cathedral is, therefore, a result of a meticulous and long-lasting restoration process. Below some other photo impressions.
The cathedral is located on the Île de la Cité, an island in the very heart of Paris that was the place of the first settlement in the area. All the distances from Paris counted in France are calculated from a point located in the square close to the Notre Dame main entrance.
In Paris, there is a regular vessel service that offers a one hour tour alongside banks of the Seine. On its way a vessel sails around the island. As the ship approaches the island from the South East, one can enjoy one of the best views onto the cathedral from its backside.
Post Scriptum: Tragically, a devastating fire struck the cathedral on April 15, 2019, causing significant damage to its roof and spire. Efforts have been underway since then to restore and rebuild this historic masterpiece, ensuring that Notre-Dame’s legacy endures for future generations.