There’s so much to learn about the Notre Dame Cathedral, the history holds secrets that the recent fire, which many believe was arson by professionals, has only served to draw attention to the rich and illustrious past to understand some of the story of it’s construction and why it matters.
On April 15, 2019 a massive fire broke out at the 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a medieval Catholic sanctuary, ultimately leading to the collapse of its Gothic spire, as reported by The Guardian. The main structure of Notre Dame and its two towers have been saved by firefighters.
If there was ever a perfect example of Conspiracy theory it would be the fire of Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s obvious that the magnificent cathedral was an act of arson, without even knowing all the facts. It’s just simply the difficulty of making 850 year old oak catch on fire, it’s nearly impossible. This was not an accident.
The list of facts supporting arson is very long, including a string of church fires across France in the weeks leading up, and on the day of the Paris fire, at nearly the same time, a fire broke out at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. The flames engulfed the Marwani Prayer Room, also known as Solomon’s Stables. The fire at the mosque received minimal attention by international media.
Not sure the meaning or significance of the attacks on religious buildings but certainly the fire in both places at the same time, it is not a coincidence.
I decided to put this page here, so that I can place some information here about the magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral.
The cathedral’s construction was begun in 1160 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and was largely complete by 1260, though it was modified frequently in the following centuries. In the 1790s, Notre-Dame suffered desecration during the French Revolution; much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. In the 19th century, the cathedral was the site of the coronation of Napoleon I, and the funerals of many French presidents.
Popular interest in the cathedral blossomed soon after the publication, in 1831, of Victor Hugo‘s novel Notre-Dame de Paris (better known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). This led to a major restoration project between 1844 and 1864, supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The liberation of Paris was celebrated within Notre-Dame in 1944 with the singing of the Magnificat. Beginning in 1963, the cathedral’s façade was cleaned of centuries of soot and grime. Another cleaning and restoration project was carried out between 1991 and 2000.
The cathedral has been progressively stripped of its original decoration and works of art. Several noteworthy examples of Gothic, Baroque, and 19th-century sculptures and a group of 17th- and early 18th-century altarpieces remain in the cathedral’s collection.
The most important relics in Christendom, including the Crown of Thorns, a sliver of the true cross, and a nail from the true cross, are preserved at Nôtre Dame.
History
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 is the Pillar of the Boatmen, discovered in 1710. This building was replaced with an Early Christian basilica. It is unknown whether this church, dedicated to Saint Stephen, was constructed in the late 4th century and remodeled later, or if it was built in the 7th century from an older church, possibly the cathedral of Childebert I.[b] The basilica, later cathedral, of Saint-Étienne [fr] was situated about 40 meters (130 ft) west of Notre-Dame’s location and was wider and lower and roughly half its size. For its time, it was very large—70 meters (230 ft) long—and separated into nave and four aisles by marble columns, then decorated with mosaics.
Four churches succeeded the Roman temple before Notre-Dame. The first was the 4th century basilica of Saint-Étienne, then the Merovingian renovation of that church which was in turn remodeled in 857 under the Carolingians into a cathedral. The last church before the cathedral of Notre-Dame was a Romanesque remodeling of the prior structures that, although enlarged and remodeled, was found to be unfit for the growing population of Paris. A baptistery, the Church of John the Baptist [fr], built before 452, was located on the north side of the church of Saint-Étienne until the work of Jacques-Germain Soufflot in the 18th century.
In 1160, the Bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, decided to build a new and much larger church. He summarily demolished the Romanesque cathedral and chose to recycle its materials. Sully decided that the new church should be built in the Gothic style, which had been inaugurated at the royal abbey of Saint Denis in the late 1130s. The Gothic cathedrals of Sens, Senlis, Laon, Noyon and Angers were already under construction began at Nôtre Dame
Notre Dame Photo credit: Daniel Arrhakis on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC
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