Hi, Little Fox readers! It's me, Jake, again. I'm working on my Halloween costume; I'm going to dress up as a creepy grotesque this year. Do you know what that is? I'd never heard of grotesques until this week's Landmarks lesson about Notre-Dame Cathedral. Located in Paris, France, Notre-Dame is the most famous example of Gothic architecture from the Middle Ages. I'll tell you about the grotesques at Notre-Dame in a few minutes. First I want to tell you about the cathedral itself!
Notre-Dame Cathedral was originally envisioned around 1160 by Maurice de Sully, the bishop of Paris. By then the city of Paris had become the political and economic center of France. De Sully decided to replace the ruins of two old churches with a huge cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In fact, in French notre-dame means "our lady." Construction of the cathedral began in 1163, and it was a massive undertaking. A new road needed to be laid out to transport materials to the site, and houses were torn down to make room for the huge new building. After more than 180 years, Notre-Dame was finally finished.
Gothic architecture is all about making people look up toward heaven, so a lot of Notre-Dame's elements seemed to reach toward the sky. Rows of large columns and pointed arches allowed builders to make the ceilings really high. And ribbed vaults were developed as a way to build a lightweight ceiling with heavy stone blocks. That allowed walls to go much higher than those in earlier buildings.
Notre-Dame's high walls were filled with tall stained-glass windows that flooded the cathedral with beautiful, glowing light. The windows told lots of different stories too. You see, when Notre-Dame was being built, most people couldn't read. So these windows showed scenes from the Old and New Testaments, allowing worshippers to "read" the stories through pictures instead of written words.
During construction, architects noticed that Notre-Dame's exterior walls were beginning to crack. But they came up with a clever solution, something that was a new idea at the time: flying buttresses. Those are supports, kind of like long arms, that extend out from the sides of the building and down to the ground. Apparently the new flying buttresses weren't too popular at first; people thought they made the cathedral look ugly and unfinished. But today flying buttresses are considered an important part of Gothic architecture.
Most people are familiar with Notre-Dame's west facade, which has three unique portals, or doorways, surrounded by intricate carvings that depict Mary's life, the Last Judgment, and the life of St. Anne. Above these portals are statues of biblical kings. Mr. Fay told us that the statues are actually replacements that were made in the 1800s because the originals were destroyed during the French Revolution. The people attacking Notre-Dame thought the statues were French kings instead of biblical ones so they chopped the statues' heads off!
The most impressive part of the west facade is the pair of massive towers, which hold the cathedral's bells. Notre-Dame's oldest bell, called Emmanuel, is in the South Tower. Emmanuel weighs thirteen metric tons and is rung every hour and on special occasions.
Okay, now I can finally tell you about my favorite part of Notre-Dame—the grotesques! Some of these awesome statues look down from the Grand Gallery, an outdoor balcony that connects the two towers. Grotesques are strange figures—people or animals—with exaggerated or distorted features. Some of Notre-Dame's grotesques look like scary demons, with sharp claws and fangs; others are chimeras, which are mythical creatures that have parts from two or more different animals. My favorite statue at the cathedral is a winged monkey that looks like it's daydreaming as it looks out over the city. But all of the statues are really cool; it's hard to imagine Notre-Dame without them!
More grotesques can be found in the form of gargoyles, or waterspouts. Mr. Fay explained that rainwater can damage stone walls, so a network of gutters leads the water off the cathedral's roof and down to numerous gargoyles. Rainwater rushes through the gutters and then spurts out of the grotesques' mouths, keeping the walls of Notre-Dame dry, and probably scaring lots of people too!
It's no wonder that Notre-Dame was the inspiration for Victor Hugo's famous novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The cathedral has played an important role in French history. Crusaders prayed in it before going off to war and the famous emperor Napoleon had his coronation in it. By 1768 Notre-Dame was such a well-known place, geographers decided to start using the cathedral to mark all distances in France!
As I mentioned before, the cathedral has also been attacked. During the French Revolution, citizens ransacked it, stealing many of its treasures, and damaging parts of it. Then in 1871, people who were angry with the French government attempted to burn down the cathedral. Luckily, those people weren't successful, and Notre-Dame is still standing!
Mr. Fay told us that Notre-Dame continues to function as a cathedral and the center of Catholicism in France. It can fit six thousand people and holds services every day, including a weekly televised service. With about 13 million people visiting each year, Notre-Dame is the most popular tourist spot in France. Visitors can light candles, pray to the Virgin Mary, check out the beautiful artwork, or listen to one of the cathedral's three pipe organs. Visitors can even climb the 387 steps up to the Grand Gallery and get their picture taken next to a frightening grotesque.
Well, I should get back to work on my Halloween costume now. I have a lot to do if I want to look as cool as the grotesques at Notre-Dame!