NOTRE DAME REBORN PART II

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NOTRE DAME REBORN PART II

My first visit to Notre Dame since the fire

Johnny Paris Tours

Feb 09, 2025

Transcript

My first visit to Notre Dame since fire nearly destroyed the cathedral in April of 2019. I imagine it looked this way when it was first completed in the 13th century: new, clean and flooded with light from the many stain glass windows and the magnificent rose windows that sit high up on the north, south and west sides.

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The smaller of the three rose windows is also the earliest. On the western side, it was finished in 1225. None of the original glass remains in this window, having been entirely recreated in the 20-year (1944-1864) renovations of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

South Rose window with 16 vertical windows (Photo by the author))

The other two windows are much larger than the west window. This is due to a new, technlogical innovation in architecture that is among the features that define “Gothic.” The innovation is the “flying” buttresses that make the walls thinner and stronger, by distributing the weight of the roof off of the walls, and driving it down into the ground. This allowed these new “French style” churches to have thinner, higher walls.

The north window was finished around 1250. The south in about 1260. It was given to the cathedral by King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) who also built the magnificent Saints-Chappelle, just west of Notre Dame.

The south rose window depicts scenes from the life of Jesus, as well as twelve medallions with the twelve apostles. Some of the glass in this window is believed to be original.

The Pillar of the Virgin — One of the oldest pieces in Notre Dame (Photo by Ibex73 licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International)

Because the church is named and dedicated to Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris, or the Virgin Mary), one of the most sacred sites in the cathedral, in the south-east section of the transept. This area of Notre Dame is meaningful since in the 12th century, an altar to Mary stood in this very same place. The statue survived the 2019 Notre-Dame fire, and is an example of Late Gothic sculpture.

Notre Dame holds many other sculptures, both historic and modern. Miraculously, many survived the fire of 2019 with little or no damage. One in particular sits in a prominent place in the cathedral, the statue of the “Virgin of Pity’ more commonly known as a Pietà created by Nicolas Coustou (1723).

The “Virgin of Pity’ **Pietà** by Nicolas Coustou (1723).Photo by the author

Next: More about the artwork of Notre Dame de Paris, its history and mystery

Bonne journée

Johnny

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