Notre Dame de Paris - France

Notre Dame Cathedral (full name: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, “Our Lady of Paris”) is a beautiful cathedral on the the Île de la Cité in Paris. Begun in 1163 and mostly completed by 1250, Notre Dame is an important example of French Gothic architecture, sculpture and stained glass.

The Notre Dame is the most popular monument in Paris and in all of France, beating even the Eiffel Tower with 13 million visitors each year. But the famous cathedral is also an active Catholic church, a place of pilgrimage, and the focal point for Catholicism in France - religious events of national significance still take place here.

East view of the Notre Dame, from a bridge over the Seine

Closer look at the famous west front of Notre Dame Cathedral

South exterior and transept

Chevet (east end) of the cathedral, with pinnacles and flying buttresses

The west front’s central portal, depicting the Last Judment

Central portal of the west front, depicting the Last Judgment (c.1230). In the middle of the tympanum, St. Michael the Archangel weighs souls while a furry Devil and helpers attempt to skew the results in their favor. On the left are the saved and on the right are the damned.

Panoramic detail of central portal (c.1230). Full-length statues of apostles on the left side of the portal. From left to right: Bartholomew, Simon, James the Less, Andrew, John, and Peter.

The Portal of St. Anne was the first of the three west portals to be installed (c.1200). Its tympanum is an earlier Romanesque work dating from about 1150. Anne is the Virgin Mary’s mother, who is mentioned in early Christian stories but not in the Bible. The tympanum shows the Virgin and Child on a throne, accompanied by two censing angels, a bishop and his assistant, and a king. The upper lintel depicts scenes from the advent of Christ (Annunciation, Nativity, Magi, etc.) and the lower lintel tells the stories of Anne and Joachim and Mary and Joseph. On the trumeau is a statue of Saint Marcel, a 5th-century bishop of Paris, who is vanquishing a dragon symbolising the scourges with which his diocese was cursed. Statues of Peter, Paul, and biblical monarchs (all remade in the 19th century) are on the door jambs.

Tympanum of the Portal of the Virgin, depicting the Coronation of Mary

Interior of Notre Dame, looking east to the choir

Priests administer the Eucharist (Holy Communion) during a service.

The north ambulatory, looking east.

The buildings were arranged around a small cloister that allowed access to the cathedral. This cloister’s arcatures were decorated with eighteen glass windows created by Gérente according to Steinheil’s cartoons. These windows represent the Legend of Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. Each window is accompanied by a Latin inscription that narrates the scene. The medallion on the main bay of the cloister portrays the Coronation of the Virgin, created by Gérente based on Steinhel’s drawings.

The south rose window, donated by King St. Louis and installed c.1260. Its general themes are the New Testament, the Triumph of Christ, and the symbolic number four. Repaired more than once over the centuries, many of the panes are out of their original order. In the third and fourth circle are scenes from the Life of St. Matthew that date from the 12th century.

Detail of the north rose window (c.1250), with a theme of the Old Testament.

The beautiful north rose window.

West Rose Window, unfortunately half-covered by the organ

Gargoyles look out from the south tower.

The organs add to the cathedral’s acoustics and architecture. They play a key role in the cathedral’s musical and liturgical life and contribute to the beauty of the services and to Notre-Dame de Paris’s spiritual and artistic influence.

The Mays of Notre-Dame de Paris are large paintings accompanied by poems in honour of the Virgin. They were commissioned almost every year from 1630 to 1707 by the Parisian Goldsmiths’ guild. They were offered the following spring of each year, on 1 May, to their cathedral in honour of the Virgin Mary.

Gargoyles (19th century) full of character on the south tower.