Notre-Dame de Paris: Building the Great Gothic Cathedral

Notre-Dame de Paris, the cathedral of the bishops of Paris on the Île de la Cité, was begun in 1163 and became one of the largest and most admired buildings of medieval Europe. Built under the direction of Bishop Maurice de Sully and his successors, it brought together the new Gothic techniques of pointed arches, rib vaults and, among the earliest anywhere, flying buttresses. For more than eight centuries it has been the religious and symbolic centre of Paris.

Background: Paris and the new style

In the 12th century Paris was becoming the permanent capital of the Capetian kings of France and one of the leading cities of Europe. Its schools, clustered around the cathedral and the abbeys on the left bank, attracted students from across Christendom and were soon to grow into the University of Paris.

The existing cathedral on the island was an older church dedicated to Saint Stephen, with a separate church of Our Lady nearby. A few miles to the north, Abbot Suger had recently rebuilt the abbey church of Saint-Denis, whose choir, consecrated in 1144, showed the possibilities of a light-filled new style. The bishops of Sens, Noyon, Senlis and Laon were also building in the new manner.

Maurice de Sully, elected bishop of Paris in 1160, was the son of a poor family from the Loire valley who had risen through the Paris schools. He decided to replace the old buildings with a single cathedral on a scale that matched the growing city and its royal patron.

Laying the foundations, 1163

Building began in 1163, during the reign of King Louis VII. A long-standing tradition holds that Pope Alexander III, then living in exile in France, laid the foundation stone, though this is not recorded in contemporary sources and some historians treat it with caution.

The site was cleared and new streets laid out, including a road leading to the cathedral’s west front that later formed the Rue Neuve-Notre-Dame. Construction began at the east end, as was usual, so that the choir and main altar could be used for services as soon as possible.

Funding came from the bishop and the cathedral clergy, from royal and noble gifts, from the sale of indulgences and from donations by ordinary people. Guilds and confraternities paid for chapels and windows, and the work continued at varying speeds for decades according to the money available.

Choir, nave and the first flying buttresses

The choir, with its double ambulatory, rose first. Its high altar was consecrated on 19 May 1182 by a papal legate, Henri de Château-Marçay. Work then moved westwards to the nave, which was largely complete in the first decade of the 13th century.

As first designed, the building had four storeys inside: a ground-floor arcade, a large gallery above the aisles, a level of small round openings, and high windows. The vaults rose to about 33 metres, higher than any earlier Gothic church. To hold these high walls in place, the builders added flying buttresses, external stone arches that carried the outward thrust of the vaults over the aisles to massive piers outside.

Notre-Dame is generally considered one of the first major buildings to use flying buttresses, probably from around 1180 onwards. Its original buttresses were later replaced, in the 13th and 14th centuries, by larger single-span designs, which give the building the bristling outline seen from the east today.

The west front, towers and rose windows

The west facade was begun around 1200 under Bishop Eudes de Sully, Maurice’s successor, and completed in stages over about fifty years. Its harmonious design of three portals, a gallery of statues, a central rose window and two square towers became a model for later Gothic facades.

The three portals are dedicated to the Last Judgement in the centre, the Virgin Mary on the left and Saint Anne on the right. Above them runs the Gallery of Kings, a row of 28 statues of the kings of Judah, Old Testament ancestors of Christ. The great west rose window was installed around 1225, and the towers, each about 69 metres high, were finished around 1250. The planned spires on top of them were never built.

In the mid-13th century the cathedral was updated in the latest fashion. The high windows were enlarged, and the transepts, the arms of the cross-shaped plan, were given new facades with huge rose windows.

The north transept facade was designed by Jean de Chelles around 1250. The south transept facade was begun in 1258, according to an inscription, by Jean de Chelles and completed by Pierre de Montreuil. Their two rose windows, each about 13 metres across, are masterpieces of the Rayonnant style, in which walls dissolve into delicate stone tracery and coloured glass. The north rose, filled with Old Testament figures around the Virgin and Child, still keeps much of its 13th-century glass.

From the 1220s to about 1320, chapels were added between the buttresses along the nave and choir. Later architects, including Pierre de Chelles, Jean Ravy and Jean le Bouteiller, worked on the choir screen and other finishing touches. The cathedral is generally considered complete by about 1345.

The cathedral in medieval Paris

Notre-Dame was far more than a building. It was the seat of the bishop, the home of a powerful chapter of canons, and the setting for royal ceremonies, councils and great processions. Kings came to give thanks for victories, and important relics were displayed there.

The cathedral was also a centre of learning and music. Its school was one of the roots of the University of Paris, where scholars such as Peter Abelard had taught in the early 12th century. In the late 12th and early 13th centuries composers associated with the cathedral, known by the names Léonin and Pérotin, developed elaborate polyphony for two, three and four voices. This Notre-Dame school of music is a landmark in the history of Western music.

The crowds who entered through the portals were taught by the sculpture and glass, which presented scenes from the Bible and the lives of saints to a largely illiterate population. In 1239 King Louis IX acquired the Crown of Thorns, which was later housed in his new Sainte-Chapelle nearby; after the French Revolution it was transferred to Notre-Dame’s treasury.

Later history

Over the following centuries the cathedral was altered to suit changing tastes. In the late 17th and 18th centuries clergy removed the choir screen and replaced much medieval glass with clear windows to let in more light.

During the French Revolution the cathedral was nationalised and briefly turned into a Temple of Reason in 1793. Revolutionaries pulled down the statues of the Gallery of Kings, believing them to represent French monarchs. Many heads were found in 1977 buried in central Paris and are now in the Musée de Cluny. Napoleon was crowned emperor in the cathedral on 2 December 1804.

By then Notre-Dame was in poor condition. Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, stirred public concern for the building. From 1844 the architects Jean-Baptiste Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc carried out a major restoration, adding a new central spire, about 96 metres high, and the famous chimeras of the upper gallery.

On 15 April 2019 a fire broke out in the roof. The medieval oak roof frame, nicknamed “the forest”, and Viollet-le-Duc’s spire were destroyed, but the stone vaults largely held and the towers survived. After a five-year restoration the cathedral reopened on 7 December 2024.

Myths and facts

A common belief is that the gargoyles and chimeras visible on postcards are medieval. The working gargoyles that drain rainwater do follow medieval models, but the best-known chimeras, such as the Stryge, were designed in the 19th century.

Another misconception is that the cathedral was built in a single campaign to a fixed plan. In reality it was built and rebuilt over nearly two centuries, with major changes of design, and much of what visitors see, from the flying buttresses to parts of the sculpture and glass, reflects later rebuilding and restoration.

The Hunchback, Quasimodo, is a fictional character, and the novel is set in the 15th century, long after the cathedral was built.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1160: Maurice de Sully becomes bishop of Paris.
• 1163: Construction of the new cathedral begins.
• 19 May 1182: The high altar of the choir is consecrated.
• c. 1200: Work begins on the west facade under Bishop Eudes de Sully.
• c. 1225: The west rose window is installed.
• c. 1250: The towers are completed; work begins on the north transept facade.
• 1258: The south transept facade is begun by Jean de Chelles.
• c. 1345: The cathedral is considered complete.
• 2 December 1804: Napoleon is crowned emperor in Notre-Dame.
• 15 April 2019: Fire destroys the roof and spire; the cathedral reopens on 7 December 2024.

Why it matters

Notre-Dame showed how far the new Gothic style could be pushed in height, light and scale, and its flying buttresses and rose windows influenced builders across Europe. It was central to the religious, intellectual and musical life of medieval Paris. Its survival through revolution, neglect and fire has made it a symbol not only of Paris but of shared European heritage.