The Notre Dame Cathedra

Max Fricks

10/29/19

Notre Dame Cathedral: A Unique Structure Of Its Time

            The Notre Dame Cathedral one of the prettiest Cathedrals of its time built from 1163 to 1345 in Paris, France. A true gothic style with its thin walls and ribbed vaulting is one of the prettiest sites in France to this day. It wasn’t originally going to be that way though with the initial design having a heavier roof and thick walls (Fuentes). It wasn’t till around early 1200’s that they changed the design adding in that ribbed vaulting to help with supporting the structure. Which allowed for less weight on the walls and allowed for more windows to be implemented into the structure (Fuentes). Which they would add the rose windows into the structure which was also big in the gothic style of architecture. Another fascinating fact about the structure that in the early parts of the 1300’s around the ending of construction, they decided to use flying buttresses. Flying buttresses, allow for higher ceilings by being supports for the walls and roof. The Notre Dame Cathedral uses these heavily to help with the height of the structure and they are some of the best features of the Cathedral (Fuentes). These flying buttresses were another key part that helped the Notre Dame Cathedral into one of the most memorable gothic style structures ever.

            This Cathedral was one of the first structures of it’s time to really show what the gothic style should look like. The original starter of the project Bishop Sully would have been proud of the structure. He died though before the project even was close to completion. He was able to celebrate the first mass ever in the Cathedral in 1182 (Fuentes). It’s crazy how long that the Notre Dame Cathedral took about 200 years, but it was well worth it for the country of France. A true treasure for the people of France for hundreds of years now (Simon). What’s even more amazing till just recently with the fire that it’s even able to be rebuilt. It has run into several different factors of why it shouldn’t still be around. Example of being a French Revolution and earthquakes and other factors that could have just left it in crumbles (Simon). Sadly, though with this fire that happened this past April it took a heavy toll on the structure destroying its spire and roof. Which the spire is heavily influenced by the gothic style of architecture.

Works Cited

Fuentes, J. “ An 800-Year History Of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral”. National Geographic. April 15, 2019. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2017/05-06/notre-dame-de-paris/ Accessed October 29, 2019

Simon, D. “ This Is What Makes Notre Dame Cathedral So Iconic”. CNN. April 16, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/notre-dame-cathedral-iconic/index.html  Accessed October 29, 2019