, the
transept and the
choir of the current building. The
Cathedral of Saint Étienne was located to the west, at the level of today's
parvis. and Myles Zhang It is believed that before the arrival of
Christianity in France, a
Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to
Jupiter stood on the site of Notre-Dame. Evidence for this includes the
Pillar of the Boatmen, discovered beneath the cathedral in 1710. In the 4th or 5th century, a large early Christian church, the
Cathedral of Saint Étienne, was built on the site, close to the royal palace. The entrance was situated about west of the present west front of Notre-Dame, and the apse was located about where the west façade is today. It was roughly half the size of the later Notre-Dame, long—and separated into
nave and four
aisles by marble columns, then decorated with
mosaics. The last church before the cathedral of Notre-Dame was a
Romanesque remodelling of Saint-Étienne that, although enlarged and remodelled, was found to be unfit for the growing population of Paris. A
baptistery, the
Church of Saint-John-le-Rond, built about 452, was located on the north side of the west front of Notre-Dame until the work of
Jacques-Germain Soufflot in the 18th century. In 1160, the
bishop of Paris,
Maurice de Sully, Five years after the devastating fire, Notre-Dame de Paris formally reopened with a two-hour ceremony inside its newly renovated interior following an estimated $739 million restoration. This was then followed by an event that was attended by global leaders including French president Emmanuel Macron and US president-elect Donald Trump. This celebration honoured the successful completion of the 2,000-plus day rebuilding effort that destroyed the spire and wooden roof structure. Macron hailed the cathedral as a metaphor for the nation's ability to "accomplish the impossible". , drawn by
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc as they would have appeared from 1220 to 1230 The first phase began with the construction of the
choir and its two
ambulatories. According to
Robert of Torigni, the choir was completed in 1177 and the
high altar consecrated on 19 May 1182 by
Cardinal Henri de Château-Marçay, the
Papal legate in Paris, and Maurice de Sully. The second phase, from 1182 to 1190, concerned the construction of the four sections of the nave behind the choir and its aisles to the height of the
clerestories. It began after the completion of the choir but ended before the final allotted section of the nave was finished. Beginning in 1190, the bases of the façade were put in place, and the first traverses were completed. Before the buttresses, all of the weight of the roof pressed outward and down to the walls, and the abutments supporting them. With the flying buttress, the weight was carried by the ribs of the vault entirely outside the structure to a series of counter-supports, which were topped with stone pinnacles which gave them greater weight. The buttresses meant that the walls could be higher and thinner, and could have larger windows. The date of the first buttresses is not known with precision beyond an installation date in the 12th century. Art historian
Andrew Tallon has argued, based on detailed laser scans of the entire structure, that the buttresses were part of the original design. According to Tallon, the scans indicate that "the upper part of the building has not moved one smidgen in 800 years," whereas if they were added later some movement from prior to their addition would be expected. Tallon thus concluded that flying buttresses were present from the outset. The first buttresses were replaced by larger and stronger ones in the 14th century; these had a reach of between the walls and counter-supports. During the
Renaissance, the Gothic style fell out of style, and the internal pillars and walls of Notre-Dame were covered with tapestries. In 1548, rioting
Huguenots damaged some of the statues of Notre-Dame, considering them
idolatrous. in Notre-Dame's
parvis was added in 1625 to provide nearby Parisians with running water. Since 1449, the Parisian goldsmith guild had made regular donations to the cathedral chapter. In 1630, the guild began donating a large altarpiece every year on 1 May. These works came to be known as the
grands mays. The subject matter was restricted to episodes from the
Acts of the Apostles. The prestigious commission was awarded to the most prominent painters and, after 1648, members of the
Académie Royale. Seventy-six paintings had been donated by 1708, when the custom was discontinued for financial reasons. Those works were confiscated in 1793 and the majority were subsequently dispersed among regional museums in France. Those that remained in the cathedral were removed or relocated within the building by the 19th-century restorers. Thirteen of the
grands mays hang in Notre-Dame; these paintings suffered water damage during the fire of 2019 and were removed for conservation. An altarpiece depicting
The Visitation, painted by
Jean Jouvenet in 1707, was also in the cathedral. The
canon Antoine de La Porte commissioned for Louis XIV six paintings depicting the life of the
Virgin Mary for the choir. At this same time,
Charles de La Fosse painted his
Adoration of the Magi, now in the
Louvre.
Louis Antoine de Noailles,
archbishop of Paris, extensively modified the roof of Notre-Dame in 1726, renovating its framing and removing the
gargoyles with lead gutters. Noailles also strengthened the buttresses, galleries, terraces, and vaults. In 1756, the cathedral's canons decided that its interior was too dark. The medieval stained-glass windows, except the rosettes, were removed and replaced with plain, white glass panes. Many of the heads were found during a 1977 excavation nearby, and are on display at the
Musée de Cluny. For a time the
Goddess of Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary on several altars. The cathedral's great bells escaped being melted down. All of the other large statues on the façade, with the exception of the statue of the Virgin Mary on the portal of the cloister, were destroyed. File:Fête de la Raison 1793.jpg|The
Cult of Reason is celebrated at Notre-Dame during the
French Revolution (1793) File:Percier et Fontaine 004.jpg|Arrival of
Napoleon at the east end of Notre-Dame for his
coronation as
Emperor of the French on 2 December 1804 File:Jacques-Louis David - The Coronation of Napoleon (1805-1807).jpg|The
coronation of Napoleon, on 2 December 1804 at Notre-Dame, as portrayed in the 1807 painting
The Coronation of Napoleon by
Jacques-Louis David 19th-century restoration In the decades after the
Napoleonic Wars, Notre-Dame fell into such a state of disrepair that Paris officials considered its demolition.
Victor Hugo, who admired the cathedral, wrote the novel
Notre-Dame de Paris (published in English as
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) in 1831 to save Notre-Dame. The book was an enormous success, raising awareness of the cathedral's decaying state. In 1844 King
Louis Philippe ordered that the church be restored. The decoration of the restoration included a bronze roof statue of
Saint Thomas that resembles Viollet-le-Duc, as well as the sculpture of mythical creatures on the
Galerie des Chimères. File:ND de Paris avant 1841.jpg|The western façade of Notre-Dame in 1841, showing the building in an advanced state of disrepair before the major restoration by Viollet-le-Duc File:Lassus, Viollet-le-Duc - Projet de restauration de Notre-Dame de Paris - page 4.jpg|Proposed doorway decoration by Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc; plate engraved by
Léon Gaucherel File:Bayard, Hippolyte - Notre-Dame de Paris (2) (Zeno Fotografie).jpg|The southern façade of Notre-Dame at the beginning of the restoration work; photo from 1847 by
Hippolyte Bayard File:Notre-Dame Spire Model (1859).jpg|Model of the flèche and "forest" of wooden roof beams made for Viollet-le-Duc (1859) (Museum of Historic Monuments, Paris)
20th century During the liberation of Paris in August 1944, the cathedral suffered some minor damage from stray bullets. Some of the medieval glass was damaged, and was replaced by glass with modern abstract designs. On 26 August, a special Mass was held in the cathedral to celebrate the liberation of Paris from the Germans; it was attended by General
Charles De Gaulle and General
Philippe Leclerc. In 1963, on the initiative of culture minister
André Malraux and to mark the 800th anniversary of the cathedral, the façade was cleaned of the centuries of soot and grime, restoring it to its original off-white colour. On 19 January 1969, vandals placed a North Vietnamese flag at the top of the flèche, and sabotaged the stairway leading to it. The flag was cut from the flèche by Paris Fire Brigade Sergeant
Raymond Belle in a helicopter mission, the first of its kind in France. The
Requiem Mass of
Charles de Gaulle was held in Notre-Dame on 12 November 1970. On 26 June 1971,
Philippe Petit walked across a tight-rope strung between Notre-Dame's two bell towers entertaining spectators. After the
Magnificat of 30 May 1980,
Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass on the
parvis of the cathedral. The Requiem Mass of
François Mitterrand was held at the cathedral, as with past French heads of state, on 11 January 1996. The stone masonry of the cathedral's exterior had deteriorated in the 19th and 20th centuries due to increased
air pollution in Paris, which accelerated erosion of decorations and discoloured the stone. By the late 1980s, several gargoyles and turrets had fallen or become too loose to remain safely in place. A decade-long renovation programme began in 1991 and replaced much of the exterior, with care given to retain the authentic architectural elements of the cathedral, including rigorous inspection of new limestone blocks. A discreet system of electrical wires, not visible from below, was also installed on the roof to deter pigeons. The cathedral's
pipe organ was upgraded with a computerised system to control the mechanical connections to the
pipes. The west face was cleaned and restored in time for
millennium celebrations in December 1999.
21st century walls are pierced by
clerestory windows, arches to
triforium, and arches to
side aisles. The Requiem Mass of Cardinal
Jean-Marie Lustiger, former archbishop of Paris and Jewish convert to Catholicism, was held in Notre-Dame on 10 August 2007. The set of four 19th-century bells at the top of the northern towers at Notre-Dame were melted down and recast into new bronze bells in 2013, to celebrate the building's 850th anniversary. They were designed to recreate the sound of the cathedral's original bells from the 17th century. Despite the 1990s renovation, the cathedral had continued to show signs of deterioration that prompted the national government to propose a new renovation program in the late 2010s. The entire renovation was estimated to cost €100 million, which the archbishop of Paris planned to raise through funds from the national government and private donations. A €6 million renovation of the cathedral's flèche began in late 2018 and continued into the following year, requiring the temporary removal of copper statues on the roof and other decorative elements. Notre-Dame began a year-long celebration of the 850th anniversary of the laying of the first building block for the cathedral on 12 December 2012. On 21 May 2013,
Dominique Venner, a
historian and white nationalist, placed a letter on the
church altar and shot himself, dying instantly. Around 1,500 visitors were evacuated from the cathedral. French police arrested two people on 8 September 2016 after
a car containing seven gas canisters filled with diesel fuel was found near Notre-Dame. On 10 February 2017, French police arrested four people in
Montpellier known to have ties to radical Islamist organisations on charges of plotting to travel to Paris and attack the cathedral. On 6 June, visitors were shut inside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris after
a man with a hammer attacked a police officer outside.
2019 fire On 15 April 2019 the cathedral caught fire, destroying the flèche and the "forest" of oak roof beams supporting the lead roof. It was speculated that the fire was linked to ongoing renovation work. The fire broke out in the attic of the cathedral at 18:18, investigators concluded. The
smoke detectors immediately signalled the fire to a cathedral employee, who did not summon the
fire brigade but instead sent a cathedral guard to investigate. The guard was sent to the wrong location, to the attic of the adjoining sacristy, and reported there was no fire. About 15 minutes later the error was discovered and the guard's supervisor told him to go to the correct location. The fire brigade was still not notified. By the time the guard had climbed the 300 steps to the cathedral attic, the fire was well advanced. The alarm system was not designed to automatically notify the fire brigade, which was summoned at 18:51 after the guard had returned from the attic and reported a now-raging fire, and more than half an hour after the fire alarm had begun sounding. Firefighters arrived in less than ten minutes. The cathedral's flèche collapsed at 19:50, bringing down 750 tonnes of stone and lead. The firefighters inside were ordered down. By this time the fire had spread to the north tower, where the eight bells were. The firefighters concentrated their efforts in the tower. They feared that, if the bells fell, they could wreck the tower, and endanger the structure of the other tower and the whole cathedral. They had to ascend a stairway threatened by fire, and to contend with low water pressure for their hoses. As others watered the stairway and the roof, a team of 20 firefighters climbed the narrow stairway of the south tower, crossed to the north tower, lowered hoses to be connected to fire engines outside the cathedral, and sprayed water on the fire beneath the bells. By 21:45, they brought the fire under control. The Great Organ, which has over 8,000
pipes and was built by François Thierry in the 18th century, was also saved but damaged by water. Because of the renovation, the copper statues on the flèche had been removed before the fire. About 500 firefighters helped to battle the fire, President
Emmanuel Macron said. One firefighter was seriously injured and two police officers were hurt during the blaze. No
Christmas Mass was held in 2019 for the first time in more than 200 years. The first cathedral choir performance since the fire took place in December 2020; only eight members sang because of
COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. A video of the event aired just before midnight on 24 December. File:NotreDame20190415QuaideMontebello (cropped).jpg|The 2019 fire destroyed Notre-Dame's wooden roof and flèche but left the outer structure largely intact. File:Flèche en feu - Spire on Fire.jpeg|The flèche aflame during the 2019 fire, before its collapse File:Notre Dame before and after 2019 fire.gif|Animation showing the south façade before and after the fire; scaffolding had been erected as part of renovations underway when the fire started File:Paris and environs with routes from London to Paris handbook for travellers (1913) eingenordet.png|The area directly under the
crossing and two other cells of vaulting collapsed File:Notre Dame de Paris by dayV1.svg|In red, the destroyed parts
Stabilisation of the building Immediately after the fire, Macron promised that Notre-Dame would be restored, and called for the work to be completed within five years. An international architectural competition was announced to redesign the flèche and roof. The announcement drew criticism in the international press from heritage academics and professionals who faulted the French government for being too focused on quickly building a new flèche, and neglecting to frame its response holistically as an inclusive social process encompassing the whole building and its long-term users. A new law was drafted to make Notre-Dame exempt from
existing heritage laws and procedures, which prompted an open letter to Macron signed by over 1,170 heritage experts urging respect for existing regulations. The law, which passed on 11 May 2019, was hotly debated in the
French National Assembly, with opponents accusing Macron's administration of using Notre-Dame for political grandstanding, and defenders arguing the need for expediency and tax breaks to encourage philanthropic giving. Macron suggested he was open to a "contemporary architectural gesture". Even before the competition rules were announced, architects around the world offered suggestions: the proposals included a flèche made of carbon fibre, covered with gold leaf; a roof built of stained glass; a greenhouse; a garden with trees, open to the sky; and a column of light pointed upwards. A poll published in the French newspaper
Le Figaro on 8 May 2019 showed that 55% of French respondents wanted a flèche identical to the original. French culture minister
Franck Riester promised that the restoration would not be hasty. On 29 July 2019, the French National Assembly enacted a law requiring that the restoration must "preserve the historic, artistic and architectural interest of the monument." In October 2019, the French government announced that the first stage of reconstruction, the stabilising of the structure against collapse, would last until the end of 2020. In December 2019, Monseigneur Patrick Chauvet, the rector of the cathedral, said there was still a 50% chance that Notre-Dame could not be saved due to the risk of the remaining scaffolding falling onto the three damaged vaults. Reconstruction could not begin before early 2021. Macron announced that he hoped the reconstructed Cathedral could be finished in time for the opening of the
2024 Summer Olympics. The first task of the restoration was the removal of 250–300 tonnes of melted metal tubes, the remains of the scaffolding, which could have fallen onto the vaults and caused further structural damage. This began in February 2020. A crane high was put in place next to the cathedral to help remove the scaffolding. The work was completed in November 2020. Wooden support beams were added to stabilise the flying buttresses and other structures. On 10 April 2020, the archbishop of Paris,
Michel Aupetit, and a handful of participants, all in protective clothing to prevent exposure to lead dust, performed a
Good Friday service inside the cathedral. Music was provided by the violinist
Renaud Capuçon; the lectors were the actors
Philippe Torreton and
Judith Chemla. Chemla gave an
a cappella rendition of
Ave Maria.
Heading reconstruction In February 2021, the selection of oak trees to replace the flèche and roof timbers destroyed by the fire began. A thousand mature trees were chosen from the forests of France, each of a diameter of and a height of , and an age of several hundred years. Once cut, the trees had to dry for 12 to 18 months. The trees were to be replaced by new plantings. Two years after the fire, a news report stated that: "there is still a hole on top of the church. They're also building a replica of the church's spire". More oak trees needed to be shipped to Paris, where they would need to be dried before use. On 18 September 2021, the public agency overseeing the Cathedral stated that the safety work was completed, the cathedral was fully secured, and that reconstruction would begin within a few months.
Research In 2022, a preventive dig carried out between February and April before the construction of a scaffold for reconstructing the cathedral's flèche unearthed several statues and tombs under the cathedral. One of the discoveries was a 14th-century lead
sarcophagus found below where the
transept crosses the church's 12th-century nave. On 14 April 2022, France's
National Preventive Archaeological Research Institute (Inrap) announced that the sarcophagus was extracted from the cathedral and that scientists had examined the casket using an endoscopic camera, revealing the upper part of a skeleton. An opening was discovered below the cathedral floor, likely made around 1230 when the
Gothic cathedral was first under construction; inside were fragments of a choir screen dating from the 13th century that had been destroyed in the early 18th century. In March 2023, archaeologists uncovered thousands of metal staples in various parts of the cathedral, some dating back to the early 1160s. The archaeologists concluded that "Notre Dame is now unquestionably the first known Gothic cathedral where iron was massively used to bind stones as a proper construction material." File:Notre Dame Cathedral Renovation Feb 29,2020.jpg|Ongoing stabilization of Notre-Dame in February 2020 File:Notre Dame restoration long view Feb 29 2020.jpg|Stabilization of Notre-Dame and removal of roof debris and scaffolding in February 2020 File:Notre-Dame de Paris en 2023 et la grue du chantier.JPG|Front view of Notre-Dame in January 2023 File:Notre-Dame de Paris reconstruction.jpg|Southwest corner of Notre-Dame in September 2023
Reopening The cathedral
reopened on 7 December 2024 in a ceremony presided over by
Laurent Ulrich, the
Archbishop of Paris, and attended by 1,500 world leaders and dignitaries such as
US President-elect Donald Trump,
US first lady Jill Biden,
Britain's Prince William, and
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Pope Francis declined an invitation from Macron to attend the reopening, holding a consistory in Rome to create 21 new cardinals on that day and planning a visit to the French island of
Corsica the following week.
Colour and controversy The colour of the restored interior would be "a shock" to some returning visitors, according to General
Jean-Louis Georgelin, the French army officer heading the restoration. "The whiteness under the dirt was quite spectacular". The stone was sprayed with a latex solution to remove accumulated grime and soot. The cleaning of the church interior with latex solutions was criticised by Michael Daley of Artwatch UK, referring to the earlier cleaning of
St Paul's Cathedral in London. He asked, "Is there any good basis for wishing to present an artificially brightened and ahistorical white interior?" Jean-Michel Guilemont of the French Ministry of culture responded, "The interior elevations will regain their original colour, since the chapels and side aisles were very dirty. Of course it is not a white colour. The stone has a blonde colour, and the architects are very attentive to obtaining a patina which respects the centuries".
New window controversy In 2023 Emmanuel Macron announced a competition sponsored by the French government to replace stained-glass windows, and the creation of a museum dedicated to Notre-Dame within the
Hôtel-Dieu. A new controversy arose in late 2024 over a proposal by French president Macron and the archbishop
Laurent Ulrich to replace six stained-glass windows installed in chapels in the 19th century by
Viollet-le-Duc and undamaged by the fire, whose value is considered more historical than aesthetic, They were being made as of 2026. ==Towers and the flèche==