The object of the society has seemed to us to deserve specially, in our day, a particular notice. The religious monument, taken singly, provided for the human thought one of the elements of such vast importance, that to no series of epochs can it suffice. The society, in a single block in unison, the individual building, is the perpetual product of generations.
1. Introduction
The society of medieval Europe contained not only a quantity but also a rhythm, an order of unity, accepted and wisely understood by those whose part has been to create above all. The feudal or monastic system had to satisfy. The natural result is infinite. Not a single stone, which has not been, in some respect, but individual, will know the true point, essential to the whole. The birth of the rest, thus rendering the interval, has followed which, by diminishing the partially made the eyes, have perpetuated the generations, which we have been to contemplate. We therefore, as a society, if we aspire to regenerate the greater society to come, will have the task of creating the heart of the Middle Ages: the cathedral of Notre-Dame is built.
1.1. Background of Notre Dame Cathedral
The impressive and mysterious Notre Dame Cathedral, the first church dedicated to Mary, was consecrated in 1163 and completed in 1260, to the joy of the initiated. Now Notre Dame Cathedral is recognized as a masterpiece of medieval Gothic architecture. The 93-meter-long cathedral has three magnificent portals, two majestic towers, and yet another 12th-century Romanesque tower. The façade of the cathedral is majestic. The southern embankment tower is dedicated to the 28-year labor of the people who worked on its creation. Carvings depicting construction work have appeared. The symbolic foundations were laid on two types of marital mysteries. The southern tower is dedicated to the Old Testament, while the northern tower chaotically finishes the New Testament with its frets and spires.
The middle archipelago is located above the figures of the 28 wise men and the foolish Virgins of Christ, reminding people that God has appointed his Day, and the middle towers of the three towers create the main entrance to the cathedral and have the image of the Last Judgment. A little above it are the figures of the Savior, the dead who have come back to life, the rising and the rising on the right hand of God. The divine commands located under the central portal depicted Joseph, not the true father of Christ, as if denying the power of the church. The pointed arches of the stained glass roof are located above 28 wise men and foolish virgin sacrificial altars, while the lancet alcoves contain the sacraments of the Eucharist and marriage. There are various biblical scenes around the northern entrance to the cathedral, and the horse tracks of construction workers top the horse. As the “trucking time” engraving says, the archaic western façade of the Notre Dame Cathedral introduced other fingers and a novice with an axe.
1.2. Significance of Notre Dame in the Middle Ages
The importance of Notre Dame in the Middle Ages is difficult to exaggerate, for its religious, civic, and urban significance. It is better to emphasize the dual importance of Notre Dame as a functioning basilica of word and sacrament, and as a material and spiritual monument that embodied what lay theologians and artists thought about Mary during this period. Notre Dame at Paris is frequently constructed as the heart of Marian devotion in relation to the Virgin’s body and generation in late medieval religion and society. Such an approach would fit the contemporary Notre Dame holistic treatment in scholarship and institution of the theology of space and iconology. The royal basilica would have to do with the Immaculate Conception being the cornerstone of the worth of Mary and Notre Dame.
The late Middle Ages have appeared for some time now as an era suffused with Marian devotion practiced, promoted, and produced in all walks of known society by veneration of the Virgin’s dead body. As such, it would have had real implications for how believers filled and moved socially in their beloved basilica of Christ or just Notre Dame. Planned in the early thirteenth century at the heart of the city of Paris, Notre Dame could not have been conceived had it not been because Paris had, by the years of the old gothic basilica of the Basilique Sainte-Geneviève and the old parish churches of St. Étienne in the crypt of Notre Dame. Not only would Notre Dame contribute to the one city to have her as its ancestor, but more significantly, she herself made from its founding an everlasting constituent of Paris that inspired the designs of even the clerestory windows.
2. Architectural Marvels
The combination of multiple towers was a rare feature for the time of construction. The initial idea was associated with two towers similar in appearance and design. However, during construction, the towers reflected more significant differences. For example, the southern tower is a few meters shorter and looks more massive. At the same time, the southern tower was open to the public, which allows us to get knowledge about internal filling and way of construction. The northern tower that looks lighter and taller was not open; therefore, it is more elegant. Another difference between the two towers is sculptured decorations.
Towers are constructed in such a way that makes them look much higher than they are. Stone screens are placed between the storey openings. Ribbed vaults, in turn, add the feeling of soaring in space. Consequently, stone screens are equipped by the “ossil” (a collet or an overhang at the base of the stone walls and a rebated or dished band at the impost level of an arch) to avoid the excessive pressure and vibrations. The short, large staircases are hollowed out in the walls between the towers of the cathedral. They run from the western gallery to the three-layered overlap. This practice was quite normal during the first steps in the Gothic Style. The horseshoe-shaped staircase shaft were always kept with ground level exit at the ground floor. According to modern research, brickwork along the western wall is rather strong. For clarity, it is worth drawing a parallel with other Gothic buildings. Usually a main western portal and big lancet windows of the great rose were the first to be completed after the foundation construction.
2.1. Gothic Architecture Features
The beginning of the heyday of the Middle Ages is considered to be the 11th century. Architecture, as an integral part of the people, was also reflected in the life of the Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 12th century, a new style began to replace the Romanesque style, which lasted for 4 centuries and was called “Gothic”. Gothic churches, built in that distant time, have survived to this day – a real miracle. And, of course, the best examples of Gothic architecture include a cathedral that has become a magical source for many generations of people. Grow fond of her instantly, feel, realize, understand, fall in love – these are not just words, this is a state of mind. Without cultural history, it is impossible to consider art objects. The inner state created in “Notre Dame” is the creation of the whole era.
Gothic art in many countries was reflected in different ways; these differences were less architectural than other forms of art. However, so many masterpieces have been created, so many churches have been laid and built, and the history of that remote life is so deeply interesting. The great Gothic temples, of course, are not alike. I would like to write, bravo, about the cathedrals of Chartres, Amiens, Bourges, Strasbourg, Cologne, Milan, and many others. But why the first of them? Only because it is hard to think of a person who has not seen Notre-Dame, but for Chartres, Amiens, Bourges and other cathedrals they are known, but to a lesser extent than Notre Dame. The cathedral is known from the history of literature and art, and many people have found for themselves there are many high thoughts and sweet memories in the book “Notre-Dame Cathedral”. The well-known writer Victor Hugo praised Gothic architecture and revealed the connection of a talented man with the cathedral.
2.2. Construction Techniques of Notre Dame
In order to understand the marvel that is the Cathedral of Notre Dame, we must first look at the techniques used to construct such a massive edifice. Imagine building an airfield with no trucks, tractors, or cranes, where all the heavy lifting had to be done by one man. What we have to understand is that the architecture of the Middle Ages was less about technique and more about compromise. Designers and builders were determined to create something that would last longer than anyone could ever expect to live and, in the process, they had to find solutions to complicated problems like supporting massive vaults on fragile-looking masonry ribs hundreds of feet in the air. Indeed, the most dramatic feature of the Notre Dame Cathedral is its extensive use of Gothic structure.
Lighter than those used in Romanesque construction and therefore enormous vaults could be built which reduced the need for heavy exterior walls and allowed for large windows which let in more light. On Gothic cathedrals, walls are called ‘curtain walls’ in that they protect the building from the wind, but provide no structural support. The building’s skeleton consists of thin limestone ribs supporting the vaults and carry the weight of up to 400 feet or more of masonry. Each support stone is cut and measured precisely in order to fit the design. These are very heavy but also very light in feeling. Arches and vaults are essentially converted from a series of stacked square-shaped and triangular-shaped stones into one-molded wall. The entrance portals are very narrow so that people enter with a compressing feeling, and then they are suddenly released into the immensity and lightness inside.
3. Artistic Treasures
One of the glories of Notre Dame, and one of the things which attracts most visitors, cannot be described in words. These are the wonderful sculptured doors which present such a vivid picture of the soaring, vaulted, holy interior beyond.
Work started on the West Front around 1200, and several generations of great sculptors labored here. Their work illustrates ends and beliefs which all Medieval men held in common. The figures of the old and new testament and the saints demonstrate the medieval enthusiasm for the lives of martyrs. This is shown in some particularly macabre carvings of the torture of the saints. In the South transept doors is the prototype of all these gruesome portrayals. These are twelfth-century carvings, with figures so realistic that a contemporary critic asked solemnly just what they can have worn.
The twelve figures outside the South transept door, known as the Engoulevent maidens have charms of a different kind. Nobody knows who they are, and it is one among many of Notre Dame’s mysteries as to why they are there at all. They are shown as lovable, hoydenish girls, round and simple as their own, people must have been. The sculptor has caught them in a wonderful variety of poses which are natural, and in fact seem surprisingly modern. Perhaps he had seen them doing very much the same things one fine summer’s morning in 1200.
3.1. Stained Glass Windows
What do people look for when they go to Notre Dame? How do they expect to be pleased or affected? The ancient beliefs that the interior of the building was the lively image of the cosmos, and that solar beams which lighted the rose window in the evening light could create in the heart of the building an area where one becomes aware of the Creole world can still be captured by visitors. These beliefs were indeed underlined by Christian doctrine, which substitutes mention of Christ for the sun, as the centre around which the universe gravitates, but it is not certain that all visitors, people of the machine age, think about it very much.
What do they see? When tourists come into Notre Dame Cathedral situated on their small island, they pass through impressive portals to find in front of them a vast expanse with delicate sides, which appear to the eye to rise upwards and outwards. In the highest part of the cathedral, the strong counterpoint to this refined doorway is provided by the three lifc-s’inous at the centre of the facade that separates the tourists from the saints and for a moment, many experience the same pleasure. But, the finesse of detail will play a more significant role when the tourists finally move into the Cathedral and their eyes soar upwards across the misleadingly capacious vault. Their attention turns to the choir, at a slightly distant view, where the Art Nouveau steel framework of the church wood group contrasts smartly with the Romans of Saint-Denis and light comes into the building from a multitude of delicate yet vibrant colours of the stained glass.
3.2. Sculptures and Reliefs
The facades of Notre Dame de Paris are decorated not with frescoes or mosaics, but with depictions of various stories from the Bible and the lives of saints. These decorations form a great “Bible of Stone” – the religious text for the illiterate Frenchmen of the Middle Ages. Many of these stories are so obscure that we hardly ever hear about them nowadays. A great number of reliefs are connected with the symbolism of particular animals, plants, and elements. Of course, modern people have lost the “keys” to a lot of these symbols, and thus the cathedral becomes a very interesting riddle for contemporary humanity.
Sculptures and reliefs of Notre Dame were badly damaged by vandals during the Great French Revolution. Nevertheless, contemplating the cathedral’s façade displays interesting facts. Thus, three most outstanding persons of the western world tradition are usually depicted from the right to the left on the main entrance tympanum – centurion Longinus, the judge in King Solomon’s judgment, and a Jewish prophet Balaam. As the French read from the right to the left, these reliefs can be called the ancient prototype of “reading” in reliefs. However, these persons in the theological system are the precursors of Christ from the view of the evidence line. The Old Testament and Isaiah’s prophecies about Jesus Christ are presented next to centurion Longinus. The slogan referred to a real event with texts in reliefs, while in Balaam’s representation the ideological component prevails. In a sense, this may be the only antique relief in Notre Dame connected with the working class.
4. Religious Symbolism
Just as the bucolic religious Flûte Harmonique resonates with Notre Dame and her cathedral, the architecture and art of Notre Dame resonates with the Church and her teachings. Just as the flute, for all the wonder of its sound, remains inanimate, the Cathedral, for all the wonder of its beauty, remains a stone edifice. It is Notre Dame who made the flute sound. It is the Church that made the Cathedral divine. But the sound of Notre Dame is the music of men and women, of love and longing, carried upward in prayer to her in the glow of candlelight that dances the angels around her apocalyptic presence. It is not the Church that speaks to us, dear worshippers, but the Saints.
Here’s what they have to say. In fact, there’s nothing heathen about the grandeur and themes of Notre Dame. Religion, and particularly the Bible, is at the heart of it all. Very little of the imagery on the western facade is pre-Christian. There are a few capitals in the cloister on the south side that display aloe wreaths and birds and grapevines, but these still turn up—with more theological resonance and even divinisation—in the form of mentions of heaven and the new Jerusalem. The flowers all around the burgess’ court, and there is a more direct Biblical link in Senlis, west of Compiègne, near Soissons Notre Dame, Limestone. The main entrance is frequently referred to as the Royal Gate and is watched by symbols of the Tribes.
4.1. Biblical Narratives Depicted
No matter how much Gothic art delights our senses through imitation and expression, through fluid and unexpected play of light, we must not forget that it served a kind of repertoire whose first principle was encyclopedic and systematic. The beauty enjoyed in cathedrals held to this hierarchy, even if it fragmented hierarchical order, uniting what is ordinarily separated and distinguishing what is normally united.
We are entering the time for enumerations. The tympanum depicts the central portal of the west façade, a final judgment that originates in Christ’s own words and which, for descending command, is called the Regnum Christi, “the Kingdom of Christ”: when the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will gather all the nations and separate people one from another. There is also a narrow passage the gospel recalls, that leads to light, and a broad passage that leads to death.
Between all those who lived before Christ without Moses’ tables of law and those who have not heard the Christian preaching, the same ultimate values are applied. The obedience or disobedience of a conscience in accordance with its reason corresponds to the teaching it has received, and therefore in the meanwhile to the “speranza di vostra Scrittura”, to the “hope in your Scripture”, the hope for our future liberation. The dichotomies of the final judgment suggest other dichotomies, which are contained in the two entrances that the north and the south portals show. Sixty-four statues depict twenty-four kings of Israel, twelve elders of the Apocalypse, and other personages that embodied a series of spiritual and prophetic expectations according to a chosen plan: Fortitudo Dei, Species Formosus, Timor Domini.
4.2. Iconography of the Virgin Mary
The history of Our Lady of Paris, indeed, of all churches dedicated to the Virgin, begins with the cult devoted to this miraculous Mother that began in antiquity. After her Son’s death, the Virgin Mary stayed with the apostles during the Pentecost. Her later life until her dormition is known only from apocrypha, gnostic texts, and the Gospel of James. According to the version set out in Pseudo-Matthew, the apostle St. Luke painted the Virgin’s image. After her entry into Heaven, her image was brought to Antioch, and during the eleven years of Paul of Tarsus’ mission there, the apostle worshipped it. The Virgin’s cult and devotion to the holy Mother of God, in both popular piety and official ecclesiastical prayers, took many shapes and have lasted to this day. Culture, architecture, sculpture, and western plastic arts all celebrated the Virgin.
The concept of the Dormition or the Assumption of the Virgin has evolved in religious beliefs and artistic forms. Some viewed the end of the Virgin’s life in a natural manner like St. Augustine, who used the word “dormition.” Others like St. John of Damascus and a big part of the Christian East believed in the Assumption. During the 13th century, an iconographic type became widely spread in the west: the group of the apostles around the opened tomb with the Virgin lying in a coffin. Only called the Dormition, it will be considered as the most correct by all the Christian churches and will be sculpted on the facade of most of the Gothic cathedrals, and consequently on Notre-Dame-de-Paris.
5. Historical Events at Notre Dame
The heart of the Middle Ages was the time from about 1100 to 1400. This was the high point of the medieval era in Europe. Many historians believe that the highest achievements of the time are in art, literature, and architecture. Today, tourists visit great stone versions of people’s ideas of that age. The best of these buildings were built to honor God. In some places, they did and still do. Notre Dame was built to be the center of the Christian faith that was then the center of medieval life. Because of this, it is the most famous of all the buildings of this time.
These buildings are called cathedrals from the word cathedral, which means the chair that is the symbolic seat of a bishop. A cathedral is the church that contains the cathedra or bishop’s seat; it is the principal church of a diocese (bishop’s territory). From this term, all the other buildings that are the tallest of the Middle Ages are also called cathedrals. All are large churches, but not all are very large. If you enjoy fancy art, impressive buildings, and spiritual mysteries, then take the tour in the circles of the Middle Ages as we travel back to the time of kings and chivalry when everyone was a willing servant of the Lord.
5.1. Coronations and Royal Ceremonies
The most spectacular religious ceremonies were, of course, coronations or Holy Unctions. They were carried out according to the prescribed ceremonial. In the Latin world, the oldest elements of the ordo at the coronation of the Frankish king come directly from Roman imperial rituals. The earliest of these rituals was the acclamation by the army. When a new emperor was anointed, kings at the time could visit Rome on the occasion of his coronation. The last such trip was made by Lothar of Fécamp in 1133, according to William of Tyre. Over Milan, Lothar himself had been given an important role in the anointing of his father, Henry V, a quarter of a century earlier when Arnulf of Milan celebrated the rite. It will not be hastily forgotten: the Archbishop moved among the high dignitaries of the empire and chose a new king who kneeled before him, he poured water over his head making the sign of the cross with the traditional formula, and he anointed it on the head with Chrism.
The details of the coronation ritual applied to French kings are to be found in the so-called Anonymous handbook of the 12th century. The royal consecration of an English king is remarkably similar, as can be seen in a program for the annual creation of Westminster Palace from 1136, which was written on the occasion of the coronation of King Stephen. York’s manual on various Orthodox liturgical ceremonies, which was inspired by the Latin rituals and compiled after Andrew’s death by the monks of the Lorvardskaya high monastery at the peak of his cult of Andrew the First-Called. Some variants can be found also in the Salian imperial rites recorded by the bishop of Speyer, Rogueil. At the end of the 12th century, the two original sources were modernized from the point of view of artistic execution and introduced into the “great satirical” liturgical books compiled in Metz: the Udalricus Sacramentary and the Trier Pontifical.
5.2. Revolutionary Period
During the French Revolution, Notre Dame was desecrated and ransacked. In 1790, the first French Revolution recognized Catholicism as the majority religion of the country, but declared it to be only a private affair. Ten days later, on the 12th of November, Notre Dame lost its title of the Paris diocese and the revolutionary municipality decided to transform it into a Temple of Reason in the framework of dechristianization. The statues of the Virgin and the saints that adorned the portion to the west were “guillotined” and thrown into the Seine, where they were found 180 years later. The bells were broken, as were the sculptures and adornments. The treasures, including the liturgical objects, were pillaged or melted down. The cathedral was used as a storehouse and then became a prison for the clergy who had refused to abide by the decisions of the revolutionary government or who were considered suspicious.
In 1795, after the defeat of the Jacobins, the National Convention returned Notre Dame to the Catholics and it was re-blessed. In 1801, the concordat of Napoleon Bonaparte returned freedom of worship while recognizing Catholicism as the majority religion of the country. The Consulate then reinstated the archbishopric, which was housed in the church of Sainte-Geneviève, which had been transformed into the Pantheon. The Arc de Triomphe would later be built on this spot. When Napoleon was crowned emperor of the French, the sacred oil was brought to Notre Dame from the church of Sainte-Geneviève and it was crowned with a lily and a sword on the parvis of Notre Dame, rather than at its altar. The rulers of France were then crowned by the Pope in Notre Dame. The relics of Saint Denis that had been placed in the mausoleum of the royal monastery of Saint-Denis when it was looted and plundered in 1793 were transferred to Notre Dame in 1819, before returning to Saint-Denis.
6. Restoration Efforts
If we were to let matters take their natural course, then it is presumable that careful repairs could be done to Notre Dame, which might not destroy its form, so long as preference were given to the smallest profile of the flying buttresses, and the old buttresses with their lead joints were conserved lying against the new ones, so that, when they became indurated with age, they could be taken away without damaging the new construction.
An ironic twist in Gothic architectural history is found in the fact that to repair a Gothic building according to the original design, one must build in place of the damaged wall or vault according to the later styles, rather than according to the original. Consequently, it is rather difficult, unless we undertake this operation of declaring Gothic architecture as no longer a living style, to affect authentic restorations of the great Gothic structures, as they were conceived and executed by those who designed them. Today we receive with melancholy acceptance the continuous and pervasive lifting of the surfaces and wall arches, and even whole sides of village churches and cathedrals, which are made by the restorers of ancient ecclesiastical fabrics with their groaning jacks, to hold back the forces of the flying buttresses. However this may appear a legitimate amputation to stop the gangrene in a Gothic building, work at the level of Notre Dame cathedral should not descend to such expedients, because, in this cathedral, uneven support makes and keeps the nave and its vaults in tension. Nitka, who in 1971 published an article on the methods for repair in the gothic vaults at the time of Bertrand de Radepont, the designer of the rays of gold of the gallery of Kings at Reims in 1255, notes on this subject:
6.1. 19th Century Restoration
The central objective of Viollet-le-Duc’s program was to reconstruct the entire building to one precise point in time – for the western facade, the 13th century; for the nave triforium, a slightly later period. However, the 14th century replacement of the original Hepanna conclusion, the mid-13th century cathedral, was excluded. The extant drawings, plans, and specifications for this period of restoration were published soon after Viollet-le-Duc’s death and give much insight into the scale and complexity of the work undertaken.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Viollet-le-Duc’s work was his restoration not only of the fabric of the cathedral but also the placement of some of the finest carving work of the period, much of which had been destroyed by the Revolution. These lost sculptures survived only as fragments by the 19th century, some in the excavations under the paving leading up to the great western doors, but many others forming the decorative filling of the guillotine at the Place de la Revolution. Since this site was then occupied by the residence of the paleontologist Georges Cuvier, these fragments were gathered together in one room, where they subsequently provided a source of income for Cuvier’s servants, who counted and sold the pieces individually. Cuvier’s skull was destroyed in a fire in 1830, but a cast of it still survives in the Parisian Museum of Natural History.
6.2. Recent Restoration Challenges
The latest stage of Notre Dame Cathedral’s restoration began in 2018. This time, the restoration was to be very thorough. Since the 19th century, there were four attempts at major restoration. But the works were limited to the replacement of the decaying stones, the introduction of wrought iron elements, and the installation of rainwater pipes. Maintenance remained less addressed. So in April 2019, practitioners went to the roof to carefully remove the last, 150-year-old elements of the restoration, sections of the lead sheets, which has become a rarity and has fed myths about the possibility of lead poisoning.
Everyone wanted to take part in the glory! A large number of restorers came to the site. 12-15 were only on the roof. The rest had to go the hard way and get to the upper reaches from inside the cathedral building. They used modern equipment: cranes, vacuum cleaners for dust, etc. But the process could be compared with the building of the cathedral. All modern equipment was used, but there were no models when the building was built. Knowing how the mounting of the roof structure, its configuration, and assembly worked were lost in the 14-15th centuries. The assembly phase usually goes through laying and linking elements together using a model. But the scale of the Notre-Dame Cathedral model was unique. There was no such kind of knowledge in the practice of 21st-century restorers. The restorers, who were between 25 and 45 years old, were faced with life’s difficult choice. They could simply remove the decayed parts of a technical masterpiece and replace them with new elements made from high-quality steel and soldered copper or, at the cost of the customer’s money, restore the broken monument.
7. Notre Dame in Popular Culture
Notre-Dame de Paris has long fascinated popular imagination. For many years, it was known as the tallest structure in the world and was surely the largest cathedral still standing. Nevertheless, like the other buildings produced during the Middle Ages, it starkly contrasts with the glass and steel dwellings which surround it. The cathedral sits in the heart of the most visited metropolis, and people from all five continents come to discover it. Apparently, the tourist professionals claim that there are only two kinds of visitors: 50% of them come for Notre-Dame, while the others come on the chance, to take a look at Le Louvre or the Eiffel Tower. This is a clear demonstration of how powerful the strength of Notre-Dame has been. Nowadays, the cathedral is also an attractive cinematographic set, and for instance, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame appears in many different versions.
The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris is a building like no other. The portals have been designed with an extensive sculptural program which sets them apart from all other portals. The rib-vaults have defeated the laws of formation of regular polygonal designs. The great hall mysteriously came into being, and it is difficult to understand why it was so long and tall. The interior has even been compared to a desert, according to the biblical source of the hymn cited by Jean-Baptiste Lully in an opera with a libretto written by Philippe Quinault. The cathedral displays a transitional situation, in that it stands close to the church of the Early Middle Ages. The grammar underlying its architectural design still seems evident in the various functional adjournments. Notre-Dame de Paris also partly owes its uniqueness and its mysteries to its declining symbolic status at the end of the Middle Ages. It hardly underwent any of the transformations that usually plague monumental religious buildings.
7.1. Literary References
Instead of discussing the biography of every literary figure associated with Notre-Dame, it would require a separate book. An overview of this overwhelming subject will suffice. Since its completion, the cathedral has attracted the attention of the most illustrious literary personages of the time. Among them, surely we must start with Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung, both of whom have left us the exquisitely poetical “Roman de la Rose,” wherein the rose signifies the Virgin, the ultimate rose. A large part of the action in this fabulous poem takes place under the tall leafy trees of the Ile-de-la-Cite.
But lending literature its poise and measure, neither Guillaume nor Jean come close to good Alain of Lille, that philosopher sometimes called Alain de Lille. Born in Aubert-sur-Oise, north of Paris, he handed over the title of “the Universal Doctor” (meaning scholar in all the sciences) to his fellow townsman, Thomas Aquinas. After refusing several other offers, Alain accepted a canonry at the Abbey Saint-Martin-des-Champs, where he died in 1202. Alain, with his fantastic bent for learning, is rightly remembered above all for his “De Planta,” which essay, it can be arduously and solemnly maintained, was written under the aegis of what would be the Middle Ages’ best, most innovative gift to science and engineering: the illustrious arboreal archetype of the Notre-Dame portals, where nature is represented as geometry and Heaven is portrayed through the expressive design of the smallest, the most delicate leaf.
7.2. Film and Television Depictions
One of the first films that included important scenes in and around Notre Dame was the 1956 film Notre Dame de Paris or The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956) released by RKO Pictures. Directed by Jean Delannoy, this version of the story is much more faithful to the original 1831 Victor Hugo novel on The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The movie is a great watch and actually shows a Notre Dame that was still in the process of being heavily reconstructed after being disfigured during the revolution.
Two versions of The Hunchback were released in 1923: The Hunchback of Notre Dame with the famous Lon Chaney in the lead character and The Esmeralda version with the famous Russian actress, Patsy Ruth Miller, starring. Other important films focused on Notre Dame and including scenes showing the interior and populating the square in front include the Disney 1996 cartoon with Quasimodo and Esmeralda, The Madeline animated movie, and more recently the 2011 Hugo adaptation directed by Martin Shahlar, and the 1956 Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Jean Delannoy. The 1996 Disney version was a great hit and it is very much adored for its life-affirming message. Yet another attempt to capture the spirit of the legend of this medieval masterpiece is called The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1997) directed by Peter Medak and including the now-great actor Salma Hayek.
It is exceptional to think that the first feature film made by history was taken at Notre Dame and was called Un Homme de Têtes (Man of Heads, 1898)! Staged by George Meliés, the comedy included special effects and to be able to produce the heads that fascinated and surprised everybody, Meliés electrocuted two of his assistants outside the doors and chopped their heads!
Works dedicated to the structure mostly include scenes from the courtyard and exterior of the building. At times the structure even represents the grandeur and exceptional magnificence of a town with some great beginning sequences such as the 1923 The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Lon Chaney and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1996) directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise – the famous musical. Other works that praise the structure and show quite a few scenes together with it as the background include the great Happy Feet Two (2012) and the clock that plays an important role in the end of Hugo Cabret. In video game culture, we have, among the most important games released on the subject, Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014) and the highly known World of Warcraft (2014). These are just a few of the many films often featuring proper scenes with Notre Dame as this would be an impossible list in a single contribution!
8. Controversies and Debates
Research goes on, and every remodeling and every new reconstruction of Notre Dame that is currently being undertaken vivifies still more the unique spirit of the Great Cathedral. The magnificent forest of pillars in the nave and the feminine lines of a woman, who gave birth to architectural work, touched the zenith of the art of the Middle Ages and heralded the Gothic style. As we build today, we must be in awe before the genius of her creators who, leaving their trace here on Earth for an instant, hastened to Heaven in the rays of the sun.
Thus ends our narration, but it does not mean the end of the history of Notre Dame. We believe that the great Paris basilica knows many more riddles and unsolved secrets than we listed. It’s also true that the official viewpoint supported by archaeological conclusions is looking doubtful more often and often. Is piling up facts to serve myths the only objective of archaeological analysis? We tell all skeptics: absolutely not; yet, it is an indispensable task on the way to perfecting historical knowledge—a task sometimes tedious but almost always compelling. People just like to believe and admire; they prefer considering their consciousness delightfully engaged, and they will find support for their beliefs under the sign of history.
8.1. Ownership and Management Disputes
The history of Notre Dame Cathedral, especially during the Middle Ages, revolves partly around known characters such as the bishop of Paris, who was in charge of it, the Archbishop of Paris, who argued finally to take over its management, and the King of France, who was responsible for the conservation of its holy remains and relics. There are stories of grievances and litigation, and even lawsuits. The resolution of these episodes could be highly moving, as was the case with the celebrated litigation on the statuary of the apostles which a great Parisian sculptor-architect had intended as the “maitre-autel,” the main altar of the sanctuary, several decades before the high cathedral was ready to receive it. This artist had secured a privilege from the king and was therefore bitterly opposed to the archbishop, who preferred the ancient properties of the presbytery. Finally, however, the law was clear and the invective failed to move the judge. Both the Abbot of St. Germain-des-Prés and the King, solemnly overlooked, Christ. He had come to earth, took away the precious privilege, and the artist himself moved the statue to the chapel of Honor, where he offered a statue of Our Lady.
8.2. Modern-Day Relevance
Notre Dame has always played a dual role: as the seat of the bishop and the highest-ranking representative of the Roman Catholic Church in France, and as a national symbol and Parisian cultural landmark. The idea of bringing the two together may sound trite and was certainly commonplace to the point of having become threadbare – until April 15, 2019. Before the morning of the following day, I had to rack my memory, and I am very far from being familiar with everything that exists, to remember a time when the French had been so unified around a common event and when public emotion had been so strong.
What were the sources of this emotion, which were undoubtedly very different depending on a person’s religiousness, his or her origins and places of residence, the frequency of visits until then to this religious site – or to others –, and, no doubt, the personal, family, or social history with which the monument was related? What makes a place of worship considered by many to be the most splendid church in the Western world, history of this monument, the most famous during the last millennium, and the great human loss that such an event represents? And what could strong and lasting damage to a building that looks immortal, as evidenced by its endurance of a thousand-year history marked not only by remarkable longevity but also by disturbingly many natural and man-made disasters, mean for the 21st-century human being?
9. Conclusion
In conclusion, one can state that the regularities of the construction and decoration of Notre Dame’s tripartite portal and chevet reflect many hidden structures in music and astronomy, indicating that the twelfth-century cathedral builders might have been acquainted with the Pythagorean-Platonic theory about the divine order in the universe. The consideration of these valuable clues may greatly contribute to an understanding of the verbal writings of the twelfth-century scholars, for example, which seems to justify the undertaking and results of this study. In a sense, the Portal of the Last Judgment and the chevet of Notre Dame, which constitute the foundations of the cathedral, seem to represent the first seven dimensions of space. The patterns of the superstructure of the main nave emphasize the predominance of seven degrees in every dimension of the manifested universe. If this would be shown to be true, then Notre Dame, the twelfth-century cathedral builders and their anonymous instructors, would rank among the greatest and most advanced scientists and artists of all time.
In general, this study shows that in the Middle Ages a demonstrative art has been practiced, as Leonardo da Vinci says: “Those well acquainted with the practice of geometry can come to understand in a moment, by means of drawings, things which other men can understand only in the course of many years.” The studied transmission of a practically motivated system of encoding such complex and holistic information in stone as pertains to universally accepted systems of code and mass-replication utilizing modular multiplication of base-codes along one, two or three-dimensional ordered substrates capable themselves to generate systematic and ergodic systems to reproduce that pre-organized complex and holistic value in any size, location, or substrate dimensionality is a rare and practical example of the interconnection of the symbolic and built orders. If the multiple concepts indeed would be confronted with the artifacts of the site this would greatly enhance the ciphers’ interpretation and applicability by proving by the artifacts that a geomat
9.1. Legacy of Notre Dame Cathedral
If Notre Dame’s façade has acquired such great world fame, the rest of the cathedral deserves nothing less indeed. Notre Dame had become, in effect, the true economic, political, and spiritual heart of 13th-century Paris. The principal events in medieval Paris, including all the major religious feasts, were celebrated there in an atmosphere of unparalleled pomp and solemnity. This importance of Notre Dame is what ensured it a leading role in modern French Christianity and is applicable to the French revolution. The history of Notre Dame is synonymous with the history of France.
Following the construction of the 13th-century chevet in the anticlerical atmosphere of the French Revolution, public officials pondered the usefulness of the symbolism offered by the religious furnishings of the extravagant cathedral. They were like a silhouette defining the specific use of the building in order to highlight the symbols they contained. An ultimate enthusiasm for the treasures they once held was certainly vital. It gives every work of art from those collections an intrinsic worth besides its merely aesthetic value. The royal mausoleum in the basilica in Saint-Denis contained fourteen statues of saint-kings, whereas the basilica itself did not. Notre Dame was not just another cathedral. Its reputation far transcended the boundaries of the Paris bishopric. It was one of the French churches dedicated to the Holy Virgin. Its wealth was a symbol of royal, ecclesiastical, commune, and private parties. Its material, spiritual, and symbolic aspects embodied the glories of the French nation and the French monarchy.
References:
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[2] E. J. Wells, “Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World’s Greatest Cathedrals,” 2022. [HTML]
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