Notre-Dame de Paris, a chronology

This weekend marks a new stage in the thousand-year history of Notre-Dame de Paris. “That’s it”, says an excited Emmanuel Macronon November 29, while visiting the cathedral a week before its official reopening. “The shock of reopening will be, I believe – and I want to believe – as strong as that of the fire, but it will be a shock of hope,” he said.

These words look to the future, but as the building rises from the ashes, what about its past? The World revisits its history through 10 key dates which helped shape the legend of this cathedral which has become a symbol of France itself.

6^th century: The basilica in front of the cathedral

A plaque on the stones in front of Notre-Dame discreetly celebrates a centenary: the famous “zero point of the roads of France” was installed here in 1924. In a certain way, it also marks the “zero point”: During Excavations in 1847 under this square, traces of an ancient church were found. Mosaics, capitals and other remains unearthed during subsequent excavations gradually revealed Saint-Étienne Cathedral. hypotheses, this cathedral could itself have been built on a Gallo-Roman place of worship.

The importance of this Merovingian cathedral, probably built during the reign of the son of Clovis I, the Frankish king Childebert I (511-558), is measured by its grandeur: a facade of 35 meters, a length of 70 meters and five bases -sides (a nave and two pairs of aisles, possibly in imitation of a church in Rome or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre).

1163: The first stone of a Gothic jewel

St. Stephen’s Cathedral was in decline. Having been gradually abandoned in the 9^th century, it was only a simple ruin at the beginning of the 12th^th century – but then Maurice de Sully (1120-1196) became bishop of Paris. Influential personality at the court of King Louis VII (1137-1180), Mgr de Sully, who founded and supported numerous churches, abbeys and dioceses during his mandate, decided to launch the construction of a large cathedral in honor of the king Louis VII (1137-1180). Virgin Mary. The first stone was laid in 1163 in the presence of Pope Alexander III (1159-1181), launching a project as colossal as the building itself: it would span two centuries.

There were two main periods of construction. The first, from 1163 until around 1250, saw the construction of the choir, the nave and two towers. It will take another century for the north facade, the transepts, the rose window and the chapels. Such was the duration of the project that, in the streets of the Île de la Cité, a new expression arose: “Wait 107 years”.

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