Paris - Cathédrale Notre-Dame

Waiting in line again in front of the western facade of Notre Dame. The cathedral had been erected between 1163 and 1250. Then the transepts seemed old fashioned and got rebuilt. This was finally done in 1363.

This facade had been completed in 1225, the towers and the rose window in 1250. At that time Saint Denis was already 60 years old - elegant Laon about 10 years.

I remember, that when I was here as a student, I had to count all squares I could detect on this facade. I have been here quite often and I have uploaded photos from Notre Dame already. So, I´ll cut the story short this time.

Note the "Galerie des Rois" running across the facade. There are 28 huge statues of the biblical Kings of Judah. Since medieval times, the Parisians saw them as French Kings. During the French Revolution sans-culottes climbed up and beheaded them. The heads crashed to to the ground. 22 of the damaged heads were found during an excavation campaign in 1977 - and can now be seen in the "Musée de Cluny". The statues seen here date to back to the 19th century and there are rumours, that one of the "new kings" looks like the famous architect Viollet-le-Duc.

In 1793 the cathedral was dedicated to the Cult of Reason, later to the Cult of the Supreme Being, before is was just used as a warehouse for the storage of food.

When I was waiting I tried to see Quasimodo up there. Yes, he still lives there. I know this, as Mr. Hugo, one of Quasimodo´s few friends, told me that some years ago.