THE MOST FAMOUS CATHEDRAL, PARIS

THE MOST FAMOUS CATHEDRAL:NOTRE DAME - PARIS

LOCATION: The place of this catedral in Paris is the center of the island in the middle of the city.

Not the largest cathedral in the world, the Notre-Dame might be the most famous of all cathedrals. The Gothic masterpiece is located on the le de la Cit, a small island in the heart of the city.

DESCRIPTIONA Religious siteNotre Dame west facadeNotre Dame de ParisThe site of the Notre dame is the cradle of Paris and has always been the religious center of the city. The Celts had their sacred ground here, the Romans built a temple to worship Jupiter. A Christian basilica was built in the sixth century and the last religious structure before the Notre-Dame construction started was a Romanesque church.Bishop Maurice de Sully started the construction in 1163. The Cathedral was to be built in the new Gothic style and had to reflect Paris's status as the capital of the Kingdom France. It was the first cathedral built on a monumental scale and became the prototype for future cathedrals in France, like the cathedrals of Amiens, Chartres or Reims, just to name the most famous.

It took until 1345 before the cathedral was completed, partly because the design was enlarged during construction. The result is an overwhelming building, 128 meters long (420 ft) with two 69 meter tall towers (226 ft). The spire over the crossing reaches 90 meters (295 ft) and was added in the nineteenth century by Viollet-le-Duc. The Notre-Dame Cathedral has several large rose windows, the northern thirteenth-century window is the most impressive. The massive window has a diameter of 13.1 meter.

HISTORICAL FACTSSince it was built, the cathedral has been one of the main symbols of Paris and of France. It has been stage to major religious and political events, which is why the historian Michelet said that Notre-Dame is a history book in its own right.in the late 13th century, the Parisians watched over the body of the King, Saint Louis, who died in Tunis; it is here that King Philip the Fair opened the first Estates General of the Kingdom of France in 1302; in 1572, it was here that King Henry IV married Marguerite de Valois, and where he converted to Catholicism in 1594; it is where Pope Pius VII crowned Napoleon I Emperor of the French in 1804; it was also at Notre-Dame that the Te Deum was sung at the end of the First and Second World Wars; Pope John Paul II came to the cathedral twice: in 1980 and in 1997 for World Youth Day. More recently, in 2005, tens of thousands of believers and followers came to Notre-Dame to pray when Pope John Paul II died and to wait for the nomination of the new head of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI.