Travel Tips

Like other long-surviving structures, Notre Dame has had an eventful history over the centuries. Crusaders made a pilgrimage to Notre Dame to pray before embarking on the holy wars and polyphonic music was invented within its acoustically perfect halls. The roof was bombed by Germans in World War I, and the Nazis marched in a parade before the cathedral in 1940 during World War II. Although the cathedral itself is over 700 years old, the site of Notre Dame has long been associated with religious observance. The Celts held their ceremonies on this island in the center of the Seine. Above the Celtic sacred groves the Romans
built a temple to Jupiter. By the year 528, the Basilica of St. Etienne was built by Childebert. Early Christians probably utilized materials left in the ruins of the Roman temple during the construction of St. Etienne. A church in the Romanesque style replaced the basilica and occupied the site until 1163 when Pope Alexander the III laid the foundation stone for the structure that stands there today: Notre Dame. Work continued on the massive church for hundreds of years under the direction of Maurice de Sully (bishop of Paris) who was largely responsible for introducing Gothic architecture in France. After his death in 1196, construction of the cathedral continued to be charitably funded by Parisian nobility who wanted only the biggest and the best for their city. Notre Dame was completed in 1345.

During the French Revolution Notre Dame was pillaged and ransacked and its religious treasures were either stolen or destroyed. In their fanatic fervor, the people saw the statues of the saints above the portals as representations of their kings and beheaded them or took them down. Some of the statues were found in the Latin Quarter in the 1970's. The only things that remained intact were the great bells, that surprisingly, were not melted down. Revolutionaries then dedicated the cathedral to the Cult of Reason and shortly thereafter to the cult of the Supreme Being. The church interior was used as a warehouse for the storage of food. It was also within Notre Dame that Napoleon, to emphasize state over church, appointed himself emperor and Josephine as his empress without the aid of any religious figure.

During the 19th century Victor Hugo and other artists tried to raise public consciousness about the horrible state of disrepair of the cathedral. Luckily, a restoration campaign was begun by Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc in 1844 that lasted twenty three years. He also designed Notre Dame's spire and the sacristy. People living too close to the cathedral were also evicted to give the structure space.

It is almost impossible to believe that Notre Dame escaped the clutches of time relatively unharmed. In art history class you learn all about clerestories and vaults and buttresses and you go over slide after slide, that show these places in detail, but what you don't learn is how a structure like Notre Dame will make you feel. It makes you feel small and insignificant but at the same time it makes you proud of the entire human race; that they toiled for centuries, generation after generation to build this place upon which you stand. In spite of wars and differences, in spite of bad weather and the passing of time and the changing of fashion, people kept going. They kept building even thought they knew they would never see it finished. Each stone in this building was carved by a human hand and although the name of the architect is now lost to us I want to eternally thank him for making it happen.

Climbing the 300 some odd steps was a small price to pay for the view and the gargoyles that keep a silent watch over this ancient place. Perhaps it was they that warded off impending disaster and steered Notre Dame safely through the ages. Perhaps it was the power of God...or even luck, but one thing is for certain, the world is a richer place for having built Notre Dame. May she stand another 10,000 years and outlive us all.