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The icon that was nearly demolished!

History | Gargoyles and bell | Things to look for | Did you know?

Notre Dame Worksheet - click here to download

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 located 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.

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.

At that time, the Cathedral was surrounded by slums. The bridge linking the Ile de la Cité to the Latin Quarter had houses built on it. The whole area was unpleasant, unhealthy and unsafe. (See the picture on the left.) When Baron Haussmann rebuilt the city, he ensured that this area was beautified with graceful apartments. The new bridge was designed without houses. (see right).

Another way to reach Notre Dame is to 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!

History | Gargoyles and bell | Things to look for | Did you know?

Notre Dame de Paris was made very famous by the nineteenth century French writer, Victor Hugo, who wrote a book called "Notre Dame de Paris". In English we know this book as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Quasimodo, the Hunchback, was the bell ringer who fell in love with the gipsy princess. The book has been made into many films, and a Walt Disney cartoon.

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. You can see the flying buttresses and the statues - most of which is hidden from view on the ground.

On the roof 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. The one on the right is busy eating its morning snack (of a cat!).

The one on the left overlooks the Quartier Latin and the River Seine. Click on this link for more gargoyles and a slide show on Notre Dame in English.

According to Hugo's story, Quasimodo, the Hunchback lived in the bell tower and rang the bell. 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.

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.

History \| Gargoyles and bell \| Things to look for \| Did you know?
Things to look for when you visit Notre Dame
	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. Look carefully at the walls in the square. You will find plaques commemorating the brave Resistance fighters during World War II. The one illustrated is in memory of those who died during the Liberation of Paris. (see below in did you know section).
	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 illustrations. 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.

History | Gargoyles and bell | Things to look for | Did you know?

Did you know?

Here are some of the lesser known - but interesting - events that took place in the life of Notre Dame de Paris

1452 - A Mystery play called "The True Mystery of the Passion" was held in the square at the front of Notre Dame. The whole performance continued non-stop for four days!
1558 - Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, was crowned Queen of France here - she was the wife of the King of France. When he died, she returned to Scotland, where she later became queen in her own right.
1793 - during the Reign of Terrorin the French Revolution, religion was banned. The cathedral became a "Temple of Reason" and the dancer, Mademoiselle Maillard, was placed in a throne on the High Altar as a Goddess of Reason.
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.

Answer to question ?
If you guessed "the Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo, you were right! Even though Napoleon had tried to save the Cathedral it was still in a very run-down state. 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.

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