Four days before the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, ravaged by a fire on April 15, 2019, here are five things to rediscover about this national monument.
– Maurice de Sully, the first builder –
Maurice de Sully wants to build the largest cathedral in the Western world: it is the crazy project of a man born a peasant and who became bishop of Paris in 1160. He is not from a great family but he has the support of the king, Louis VII the Pious, with whom he studied at the cathedral school of Paris.
The 12th century was a period of conquest for Christianity, weakened by heresies and schisms… We must exalt the power of the Church, decreed this great preacher. The cathedral, built after four other churches on the Île de la Cité, will then, according to its plans, be the largest and highest ever erected. It will have towers, an arrow with a rooster at the end to wake up sleeping Christians.
Tradition dates the laying of the first stone in 1163. Maurice de Sully, who died in 1196, was not close to seeing the end of the project estimated in 1345.
– Wine warehouse –
During the French Revolution, the cathedral became state property. A “Te Deum” was sung there on September 25, 1792 to celebrate the advent of the Republic.
With the abolition of Catholic worship in 1793, Notre-Dame became a “temple of Reason” with its altar dedicated to the goddess Reason. The statues of kings and saints on the facade are decapitated or cut into pieces scattered all over Paris.
Robespierre voted in 1794 for the existence of a “Supreme Being” whose cult does not require religious buildings. The holidays are celebrated outside.
Abandoned and decaying, the cathedral became a wine depot for the army.
– Napoleon was crowned there –
For his coronation, Napoleon chose Notre-Dame, a first for a French sovereign. Before him, only Henry VI of England was crowned King of France in 1431.
The cathedral must be restored quickly. Parisians were expropriated and their houses destroyed to clear a large square where stands were built.
The building is whitewashed. Inside, hangings on the floors, ceilings and walls are hangings dotted with the coat of arms and insignia of the Empire. They prevent natural light from entering.
Three rows of galleries are installed around the nave and the choir; an imperial throne, topped with a canopy, is accessible by a staircase of 24 steps covered with a blue carpet and a throne is raised for Pope Pius VII, practically reduced to the rank of witness to Napoleon's self-coronation.
The ceremony immortalized by the painter David lasted three hours in the freezing cold of December 2, 1804.
– Saved by a novel –
When the novel “Notre-Dame de Paris” appeared in 1831, public opinion realized the state of decay of the Gothic jewel. Revolution, pillaging, fires… the stone vessel is nothing more than a shadow of itself. The authorities are even considering killing him.
“It is difficult not to sigh, not to be indignant at the damage, the countless mutilations that time and men have simultaneously inflicted on the venerable monument,” writes Victor Hugo.
Under his pen, a collective emotion is born for this church personified in a woman with a body of flesh and stone.
The success of the book was at the origin of the creation in 1834 of the historic monuments service which appointed Eugène Viollet-le-Duc as architect responsible for its renovation. The construction work will last more than 20 years and will give the cathedral the appearance it had before the tragedy of 2019.
– Not so medieval chimeras –
If the gargoyles which adorn the gutters of Notre-Dame date from the Middle Ages, the chimeras were added by Viollet-le-Duc.
Monkey, wild man, dragon, pelican… These fantastic creatures inspired by the caricatures of Honoré Daumier observe Paris with their evil eye from the upper balustrade. One of them, the Stryge, a sort of winged vampire, horned and sticking out its tongue, became a symbol of the city.
These chimeras also reflect the renewed interest in the Middle Ages. The country is in the midst of an industrial revolution but the architect uses medieval construction techniques and creates new elements like these chimeras and the spire which disappears in the 2019 fire.
On June 23, the chimeras found their place. Five of them had been damaged by the flames. The arrow has been reconstructed identically.
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