Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Notre-Dame façades and stained glass re-tell major scenes from the Bible – built in the age of illiteracy, this was the only way how people could “read” the Holy Book.
As time went by so did the cathedral change – it was repeatedly damaged, pillaged, re-built and was once even re-dedicated – winds of the French revolution have brought glorification of the Cult of Reason and later the Cult of the Supreme Being, when for some time Lady Liberty replaced Virgin Mary on some altars…
Dilapidated, in the early 19th century Notre Dame came under the threat of demolition. It is in a way owing to Victor Hugo and his famous novel Notre Dame de Paris, which he wrote to attract public attention to the cathedral, that today we can admire at this great witness of Paris coming into being. The novel made a great success and was followed by a campaign to raise funds for the restoration, carried out by a French architect Viollet-le-Duc in 1845-70.
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| South façade of Notre-Dame |
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