Notre Dame (part one)

Thanks for your patience during my repeated absences! I’m back in Paris!

After three years of blogging and some 600 posts, I have not yet made one on Notre Dame! So, it’s about time. I will actually make two posts, one about the exterior of the Cathedral, one about the interior. Let’s logically start with the exterior, including a visit to the top of one of the towers. (The global pictures below have been taken during different seasons, which explains that the trees are not always naked.)

The richness of arches and other decorative aspects is perhaps even more visible from the back side.The Notre Dame de Paris is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris. It was basically constructed between 1163 and around 1250, but was really completed in 1345. It’s definitely one of the master pieces of the Gothic* architecture – arches, vertical emphasis, light....

As most churches Notre Dame suffered a lot during the Revolution, but was restored as close as possible to its original state during the 19th century by the architect Viollet-le-Duc (see previous post), who also restored and saved the Sainte Chapelle (see previous post), the Saint Denis basilica (see previous post) and a lot more.

The mostly rich ornamentation is very present here; it's amazing to see how the whole building is covered by friezes, statues of saints, prophets, kings and also by legendary creatures, gargoyles... originally partly painted, as often was the case with gothic church facades.
Many of the stained glass windows have suffered from previous restorations, revolutions..., but fortunately the rose windows which we see here only from the exterior (we will see them from the interior in my following post), from the 1250’s, are still there; the smaller one on the front facade is even from 1225.The towers date from about 1250 and are 63 m (207 ft) high. You can visit the SouthTower. There are some 400 steps to climb (no lift).

The top picture as some of the other ones where we can see some “funny” creatures are taken from half way up.
On the way to the top you can have a look at the biggest bell (the Emmanuel bell) which is to be found in this tower. It dates from 1685 and has since rung out the high historical points of the Cathedral, of Paris, of France...From the very top, you have of course some splendid views of Paris. We can also have a look at the “parvis”, the open space in front of the Cathedral and see the traces which have been left of the small streets and buildings, including the old hospital “Hôtel Dieu”, which still existed here until around 1870, when Baron Haussmann “cleaned” it all (see previous post).
On one of the close-ups we can see the little, perhaps oldest, Paris church, Saint-Julien-du-Pauvre with the oldest Paris tree in front of it, planted in 1601 (see previous post) and the bookshop “Shakespeare & Co” (see previous post).__________________
*/ “Gothic” architecture has actually nothing to do with the historical Goths. The Goths are said to have their origin in “Götaland”, in the south of Sweden. They crossed the Baltic Sea during the 2nd century and established themselves in the present Poland. Different Gothic civilisations, often referred to as “vandals” can be found in Europe until the 6th century. “Gothic” architecture is actually originally a pejorative term used by the Italian Renaissance finding this type of architecture too extravagant and not in line with their Roman ideas.