Notre Dame Cathedral

3 Pages 853 Words

Notre Dame Cathedral

The architect of Notre Dame was Maurice de Sully, the Bishop of Paris. He decided to build it for the growing population of Paris. He dedicated Notre Dame to the Virgin Mary. Even though construction started in 1163, it wasn’t complete until about 180 years later in 1345. The whole cathedral tells stories of the Bible in its paintings and stained glass. Every part of Notre Dame was constructed very widespread all through the years. The choir was completed in 1183 and in that same year work on the nave started. They finished the nave around 1208. The west front towers were started in 1225 and finished in 1250. Throughout 1235 and 1250 a bunch of chapels were added to the nave and the apse around 1296.
Notre Dame has a huge history. Crusader used to pray there before leaving on their holy wars. Polyphonic music also developed in this cathedral. Notre Dame was torn up during the French Revolution just like a lot of the other cathedrals in France. One of the controversies that Notre Dame had was that some of the citizens of Paris thought that some of the statues of saints that were located on the west front were representations of their kings, so they decided to behead them and take them down. Actually, a lot of those statues were found around the 1970’s which was about 200 years later. Many of the cathedrals other treasures were destroyed or taken down. One of the only things that avoided being melted down were the great bells. Notre Dame was dedicated to the cult of Reason and then the cult of Supreme Being at one time. The cathedrals interior was used as a warehouse for food. It was also at Notre Dame that Napoleon crowned himself emperor and then crowned Josephine, his wife, his empress. An archbishop should have organized this whole thing, but since Pope Pius VII was attending, there were no objections.
During the Commune of 1871, the Cathedral was nearly burned by the Communards. Some stories say that a...