Notre Dame de Paris
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Click here for a worksheet on Notre Dame.
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The cathedral of NOTRE DAME is over eight hundred years old. Construction began in 1163 and the Cathedral took nearly two hundred years to build. It is on a small island in the middle of the RIVER SEINE which flows through Paris. Two thousand years ago, during Roman times, all of Paris was on this little island! The photo shows the beautiful front facade of the cathedral. |
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This is the central front or main door for the cathedral. Like the other doors, it is decorated with statues of the saints and characters from the bible. The doors are very large and opened for Mass on Sundays. Generally visitors enter by one of the side doors. .
It is very hard to believe that this beautiful building which represents Paris for so many people was very nearly knocked down in the nineteenth century because it was in such a state of disrepair. It was actually a book written by a very famous French writer that started a campaign to restore and save the cathedral! Can you guess the name of the book? Click here to see if your guess was correct. |
To reach Notre Dame you cross the River Seine on a little stone bridge called the PONT NEUF. This means new bridge. This is a funny name because the bridge is five hundred years old and the oldest one in Paris. It was the first stone bridge to be built across the river and it has kept its name for 500 years! Notre Dame de Paris was made very famous by French writer, Victor Hugo, who wrote a book called "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Quasimodo, the Hunchback, was the bell ringer who fell in love with the gipsy princess. |
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For a small fee, you can climb the narrow spiral stairs which lead up to the wooden bell tower.(The bell tower is the one on the right hand side of the picture). You need to climb up about 250 stairs to reach the first level of the tower. From here, you can look down across the roof of the main part of the cathedral to see how it is constructed.
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There you will see the famous bell and the gargoyles who guard the tower on the outside of the building. Gargoyles were often put on buildings as a means of scaring away evil spirits. These ones, tucked away at the top of Notre Dame look quite scary! They represent a variety of creatures from ancient myths. This one on the left is busy eating its morning snack (of a cat!). |
This one overlooks the Quartier Latin and the River Seine. For more gargoyles and a slide show in English, click here. |
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Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Hugo's book, lived in the bell tower and rang the bell, according to the story. In fact, the bell weighs 13 tonnes and twenty five people used to be needed to pull the rope to make it ring. The bell is so large that about 20 or 30 people can stand inside it. Today, the bell is rung electronically. Its tone is said to be so pure because of the gold and silver jewellery which was thrown by Parisian women into the molten bronze when it was recast during the seventeenth century. The bell is only rung for special occasions such as Sunday Mass or other important celebrations. |
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There is also a higher part of the tower open, which can be reached by climbing another 141 steps. From here. the view across Paris is magnificentespecially at night when the city is lit up. Paris is a relatively flat city, and the centre has very little high rise. |
In the square in front of Notre Dame is a plaque which is the point from which all distances in France are measured. It is called "Le kilomètre 0". This was put in place by André Michelin, the founder of the famous Michelin tyre business. |
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Inside the cathedral, there is a a very large and beautiful round stained glass window made in the thirteenth century, called the "rose" window, which can be seen in the illustration. It was the biggest window in the world when it was built and it still contains its medieval glass. Its stained glass has pictures of scenes from bible stories. To see more pictures of Notre Dame, Click here for a slide show in French. |
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Did you know? Here are some of the lesser known - but interesting - events that took place in the life of Notre Dame de Paris
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- 1795 - the Cathedral was sold to a builder who was going to demolish it and use its stone as a source for byuilding cheap houses.
- 1802 - Napoleon saved the Cathedral from demolition - he thought it had historic value.
- 1804 - Napoleon was crowned Emperor in the Cathedral
- August 1944 - the square became a centre of French resistance against Nazi occupation and withstood a German seige with tanks and guns for four days.
If you guessed "the Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo, you were right! It was this story that really publicised the very poor condition of the church and inspired people to collect money to save it from total destruction.