11 juin 2007
Notre-Dame de Paris I
The current cathedral is not the first building built on this site.
Elements
carved dating from the reign of the emperor Tibère (14-37 after J-C)
and found under the chorus of the cathedral make it possible to think
that the Eastern part of the island of the City already sheltered in
Antiquity a place of worship dedicated to Gallic and Roman divinities.
In
1711, the architects of the king, wanting to build in the chorus a
vault for the burial of the archbishops, trenched there; one excavated
up to five meters, and on March 16, the pickaxe of the workmen met,
with two meters of the ground, two old walls applied one to the other,
which crossed together all the length of the chorus; one of these walls
had one meter and half thickness, the other approximately eighty
centimetres; this one appears to have been oldest, because it was there
that one found employed, instead of rubble, nine ancient stones,
charged of low-reliefs or inscriptions.
These
invaluable monuments, cut in a stone similar to the tender stone of
Saint-Leu, are placed in the large room of the palate of the Thermal
baths, depend on the museum of Cluny, under the name of ``pillar of
Nautes''.
The
darkness which wraps the beginnings of our history also extends on the
origin of Notre-Dame. It is difficult to discover, in the middle of the
contradictory accounts which one finds in our former historians, which
was the saint or the king who threw the foundations of this church. One
meets many fictions, one loses oneself in a crowd of economic
situations. Thus, the ones claim that saint Denis posed the first stone
of the Notre-Dame church. Is this in the city, is this in the suburbs?
it is what they do not decide. Did one give him initially the name of
Notre-Dame or that of Saint-Denis of the Step? it is what they are
unaware of. However, any door to believe that the intervention of saint Denis in the construction of this church must be completely isolated.
Indeed,
Gregoire de Tours teaches us that saint Denis came to Paris when this
city was yet only “Lutèce, surrounded of the Seine, located in an
island little extended, where one approaches on the two sides by
bridges out of wooden,” like known as Julien, in IIIth century, under
the impérialat of Dèce.
In
this time, Paris had as pontiffs the Druids; for religious ceremonies,
human sacrifices; for faith, the idolatry and the hatred of
Christianity. Denis saint and his neophytes could celebrate sacred
mysterieies only in undergrounds, in isolated places of the city,
called crypts, which one supposes to have been in the site where is the
Saint-Germain-des-Prés district: it is thus far from probable that the
Gallic ones, which would have sacrificed the Christians on the furnace
bridge of the Druids, had tolerated the construction of a catholic
church in the enclosure even of the incipient city.
In
which time the Jupiter furnace bridge was reversed? One is unaware
of it, but obviously its disappearance coincides with the introduction
of Christianity into the city; authentic titles prove that it was
replaced by a church as of the end of the IVth century. This
primitive church was rebuilt by Childebert Ist with a magnificence
which the bishop Fortunatus poet describes. In 1847, the substructions
of this splendid basilica to the marble columns were put at the day by
excavations undertaken with the Notre Dame de Paris square. The
foundations of the church of Childebert, hidden there for ten
centuries, had merged with those several Roman houses which one had
shaven to widen his site.
One
found part of the mosaic in small marble cubes of various colors whose
ground of the naves was paved, three marble columns of Aquitaine, which
one calls large antique, and a Corinthian white marble capital of
merovingian sculpture. The columns and the capital are exposed to the
museum of Cluny, which not indicates them on its catalogue like coming
from the basilica of Childebert, according to the opinion of Guilhermy,
but from the pagan temple which would have preceded this basilica. Most
complete of these columns preserved its astragale and its Corinthian
capital in the Latin style, characteristic which seems to give reason
to the catalogue of Cluny.
This
should not surprise us, indeed, it is not rare to find vestiges of
pagan temples to the site of the current churches, the Church having
taken the practice of evangelize the populations by preserving the
localization of the old places of worship, while modifying the
direction of the step of faithful, by christianizing them.
More
recent excavations made it possible to put at the day of the fragments
ancient mosaics, columns and capitals as well as capital of merovingian time and revealed the bases of an old church with five naves
built on the model of the constantinians basilicas (IVth century).
The
first church of Paris, recognized for cathedral per celebrates it
Gregoire de Tours, was located under the first current spans of
Notre-Dame, but then dedicated to Saint Etienne, the first of the
martyrs. The documents present this first cathedral to
us like having a narthex with a bell-tower-porch, glaze of wooden
carpentries. Us are described his interior like particularly luxurious,
as well by decoration as by furniture as it contained.
Towards
the end of the VIth century, the current site of the cathedral was
occupied by two distinct buildings: one, the Saint-Etienne, most
important, rose at midday; the other, titrated of Sainte-Marie, in the East and towards north. It is in the nave of Saint-Etienne
that was assembled, in year 829, celebrates council of Paris. In
857, whereas Paris was devastated by the Norman ones, the Énée bishop
could repurchase only Saint-Etienne and let burn Sainte-Marie. This one
was not long however in leaving its ruins and was generally indicated
under the name of new church, in opposition to that of Saint-Etienne,
which was much older. The capetians kings had taken in affection the
church of the Virgin, to which the archdeacon Étienne de Garlande, died
in 1142, made make important repairs, and to which the Suger abbot gave
a very beautiful stained glass. It was Maurice de Sully, bishop of
Paris since 1160 to 1196 and it sixty-twelfth successor of saint Denis,
who conceived the project to build a large cathedral on the site of the
two churches, by joining together them.
Always
it is that at the beginning of the XIIth century, it proved to be
essential to renovate this building become decayed. The archdeacon of
Paris, Étienne de Garlande made do at the building important work in
particular a gate devoted to the Virgin who was re-installed thereafter
in the gate saint-Anne of the current cathedral.
At the beginning of the XIIth there was already, being next to the
cathedral in north, a baptistry, Saint-Jean-the-Round, quoted in the
texts of the VIth century, as well as vast enclosed reserved for
the houses of the canons. Moreover, there was also an episcopal palate,
in the east of the island, and an hospital.
In
Paris with the XIIth century, the initiator of the project is without
question the bishop Maurice de Sully. Wire of peasants of Sully on the
Loire, it did not have personal incomes to finance work, on the other
hand it managed remarkably well the ecclesiastical goods assigned to
its load (the episcopal mense) and its financial participation was
capital. Its successors: Eudes de Sully, but also of the men like
Guillaume of Auvergne or Simon Matifas de Buci will have in heart to
lead the building site to its completion or to make to the building
modifications of scale.
The
bishop was assisted in his task by the chapter, institution which since
the IXth century gathers all the canons serving the cathedral. For
lack of documents, one does not know if the chapter intervened
systematically in the financing of the building site to the XIIth
century. On the other hand, with the XIIIth century, this chapter
which has part of the episcopal mense and goods clean takes an
increasingly significant part in the management of the building site,
particularly with regard to the hospital.
Contrary
to certain generally accepted ideas, the king does not intervene in the
construction of Notre-Dame of Paris. Even if Louis VII made a gift
before his death in 1180, even if the royal characters knelt with the
tympanum of the ``carries Rouge'' are traditionally regarded as saint Louis and Marguerite of Provence, letting think that the royalty would
have taken part directly in the building site of Notre-Dame, it for
what we do not have any document unfortunately, the cathedral cannot be
regarded as a royal building site.
As
for the participation of the middle-class men (are middle-class those
who live inside the walls of the city), it is of a financial nature and
takes the shape of offerings; this practice of the offerings does not
make besides the unanimity among the clergy and Pierre the Cantor,
senior of the chapter about 1180, the critic highly.
If
the financial participation of the people is quite real, its
participation in the building site concerns more of the myth than
reality. The design of such an imposing work requires the intervention
of specialists and they are specialized and organized trade
associations which work on the building site, the tasks of operations
being entrusted to men recruited on the spot and paid at the day.
Among these experts, the architects are most important: true men of science, even to the title of ``main lapidaries are allotted to them. ''
Unfortunately, in Notre-Dame, we do not know the names of the first architects of the XIIth and XIIIth centuries. The first name which reached us is that of Jean de Chelles. It increases the northern transept and undertook the construction of the southern transept, but it disappeared in 1258 and it is its successor, Pierre de Montreuil, who continued work. Then came Pierre de Chelles who modified the bedside and its current aspect gave him, and Jean Ravy, who finished the chorus closure.
Ist century the Eastern part of the island of the City already
sheltered in Antiquity a place of worship dedicated to Gallic and Roman
divinities
IVth Construction of a church by Childebert
VIth Presence of two churches: St Etienne and co. Marie
829 First council of Paris
857 Destruction of co. Marie by the Norman ones
1142 Étienne de Garlande, died in 1142, made make important repairs on
St Etienne, the Suger abbot gave a very beautiful stained glass.
1163 Pose first stone of Notre Dame by Louis VII and the pope Alexandre III
1177 End of the construction of the chorus
1182 Dedication of the high altar in front of cardinal papal legate
1182 End of the construction of the nave and the transept
1196 Died of évèque of Paris Maurice de Sully, appointment of its successor, Eudes de Sully
1208 End of the construction and the decoration of the gates of the frontage
1230 Enlarging of the windows of the high part of the nave
1240 End of the construction of the southern tower - abandonment of the project of flêches on the lathes
1250 End of the construction of the northern tower and the gallery connecting the two turns
The 1258 architect Jean de Chelles takes the work management: one owes him the northern frontage of the transept
The 1265 architect Pierre de Montreuil succeeds Jean de Chelles: one owes him the southern frontage of the transept
The 1296 architect Pierre de Chelles succeeds Pierre de Montreuil
The 1318 architect Jean Ravy succeeds Pierre de Chelles: one owes him
the vaults in the north of the chorus and propping up them
The 1344 architect Jean Bouteiller, nephew of Jean Ravy, takes his continuation
The 1363 Raymond architect of the temple takes the work management
1430 Crowning of Henri VI king d' Angleterre
1455 Beginning of the lawsuit of rehabilitation of Jeanne d' Arc
1572 Marriage of Henri de Navarre, future Henri IV, with Marguerite de Valois
1638 Birth of Louis XIV. His/her father pronounces a wish then and
promises “to rebuild the Large Furnace bridge of the church cathedral
of Paris”
1699 Louis XIV entrusts to Robert de Cotte the
realization of work to respect the wish of Louis XIII. He will result
the destruction from it from jubé, the stalls and the high altar. As
for the walls, they will be whitewashed of white.
1730 Installation of the Large organ of François Thierry
1741 Continuation of work for the wish of Louis XIII: Levieil replaces the stained glasses of the chorus by white glass
1771 Soufflot destroys the pier of the central gate which obstructed the processions and prevented the passage of the platform
1783 François-Henri Clicquot undertakes the transformation of the large organ
The 1792 rioters of the revolution cut down the statues of the gallery
of the kings and make dismount the flêche - the cathedral is renamed
“temple of the Reason” then transformed into warehouse.
1802 Bonaparte restores the worship in the cathedral, consequence of the signature of the legal settlement
1804 Crown of Napoleon 1st in the presence of the pope
1831 Victor Hugo publishes Notre Dame de Paris
The 1843 architects Jean-baptiste Lassus and Eugene Viollet-the-Duke see themselves entrusting the restoration of the cathedral
1857 Died of Jean-baptiste Lassus. Viollet-the-duke takes only the work management
1864 Completion of work of restoration
1868 Restoration of the large organ of Cliquot by Aristide Cavaillé-coll
1871 Of the chairs and the benches are sprinkled with oil and are ignited. The fire is avoided of accuracy.
1970 Cleaning of the frontages
The 1977 heads of the kings of the gallery of the western frontage,
decapitated by the revolutionists in 1792, are found in under ground of
the French Bank of the trade exterior and transported to the museum of Cluny
1988 the architect Bernard Fonquernie takes the work management of restoration which continues
still
Notre-Dame de Paris II
Like
the majority of the French cathedrals, Notre-Dame of Paris has a
outline drawing of Latin cross. Here are principal dimensions:
frontage, 40 meters; overall length in work, 130 meters; width from one
end to another of the transept, 48 meters; rise in the mistress arches,
35 meters; rise in the turns above the mistress arches, 34 meters;
total height of the turns, 69 meters; length of the chorus, 28 meters
out of 12 meters of width. Total surface, 6,240 square meters, giving a
cube of 218,400 meters in work, not included/understood the heightening
of the turns.
The cathedral contains 5 naves, 37 vaults, 3 pinks whose diameter is
for each one of 13 meters and half, 113 windows, 75 columns or free
pillars, not included/understood the imbedded columns, an up to date
platform reigning along the walls of the central nave, and from which
the bays are separated by 108 posts.
The nave comprises ten spans,
the chorus five. The axis of this one is slightly deviated compared to
the axis of the nave. The apse is semicircular with five sides. The
nave is flanked collateral doubles which are prolonged by a double
déambulatoire, the whole with side chapel (except on the first three
spans) and radiant (either 37 on the whole).
The nave
Built
before the chorus, the nave concerns the first Gothic style, with
sexpartite vaults, however without alternation of strong piles and weak
piles as one sees it in Sens.
The
transept, quite identifiable of the outside of the monument, does not
make not covered compared to collateral and the side chapel. It does
not have the collateral ones.
Interior rise is on three levels, with large arcades, platforms and windows high.
The
frontages north and south of the transept decorate splendid rosettes
decorated with stained glasses, among largest of Europe (diameter: 13
m).
Turns
With
the passing of years, it was suggested on several occasions that the
original plans of Notre-Dame envisaged two arrows which would rise
turns. The solids bell-towers could without any doubt have supported
such structures. But it is not in so far as they were supposed being
equipped with arrows. The cathedral of Amiens as of other cathedrals
followed the model of Notre-Dame and do not have either arrows
(however, the cathedral of Rheims should have had some, according to
initial plans', but they were never completed). During the restoration
which took place between 1844 and 1864, the idea of the arrows was
again suggested. The restorer Viollet-le-duc, wanting at all costs to
ruin the project, drew a very precise plan of the cathedral with such
arrows in order to show with the population the nightmarish result to
which this project would lead. Ironically, certain experts affirmed
since, on the basis of its plan, that Viollet-le-Duc was itself in
favour of these arrows.
The assymetry of the turns is generally due
to the cosmo-telluric forces passing under them. One is dedicated to
the sun, the other with the moon. Masculine, female, as in Chartres.
The gallery of the kings
With
twenty meters of the ground, a series of twenty-eight royal characters
represents the twenty-eight generations of kings of Judée who preceded
Christ. Each statue measures more than three meters fifty top. The
heads of the statues date from the XIXth century and are the product of
the workshops of sculpture of the restorer Viollet-le-Duc. Indeed,
the statues of origin were decapitated in 1793 during the French
revolution by the Sans-culottes, who, wrongly, believed that these
statues represented sovereigns of the kingdom of France. There remain
today only fragments of the medieval statues. The original heads were
found in 1977, at the time of work undertaken for the restoration of
the Moreau hotel in IXth district of Paris, and are currently exposed to
the Museum of Cluny.
The gate of the Last Judgement
It
is about the principal gate of the cathedral. Its imagery is seizing.
It represents the last judgement - when, according to the Christian
tradition, deaths ressuscitent and are judged by Christ. On the lower
lintel, one can see deaths leaving their tombs. Above, an angel uses a
balance to weigh the sins and the virtues. The elected officials are on
the left, and, pushed on the right by demons with the diabolic glances,
damnés connected are carried out in hell. On the higher tympanum,
Christ chairs this divine court.
It is a quite concrete
demonstration of the Christian imagery developed with the Middle Ages
by the Church, which then influences largely people.
The scene of the Last Judgement is also reproduced on many other cathedrals.
The square
The
square is the great open zone being right in front of the western
frontage. The word square comes from Latin paradisius, paradise. When
the cathedral was built, the square was rather narrow. The cathedral
was located among innumerable buildings out of wooden of small size,
such as houses, shops and inns. The square preserved modest dimensions
until the XVIIIth century, time to which the Beaufrand architect
increases it. It was reorganized on several occasions thereafter, in
particular since 1960.
The western frontage
The
western frontage is large, at the same time rigorous and linear, in an
astonishing way the circle of the stained glass of the rosette
emphasizes. Many observers noticed that the general effect is similar
to that of a host. Three doors give access in the cathedral; vastest,
that of the medium, is called the door of the Judgement; on the left,
with the foot of the tower of north, the door of the Virgin opens; on
the right, the door Saint-Anne opens with the foot of the tower midday.
The gate of the Virgin
This
gate is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary is in top of the
tympanum, sitting with the right-hand side of Christ; and an angel,
being above it, place a gold crown on its head. Note the pointed groove
in the wall around the arcs of the tympanum. The builders wanted that
this gate is different from different in the honor from the Virgin.
Above the pillar pier draws up a stone Virgin carved in XVth century,
coming from the old church of Saint-Aignan to the Cloister; it was
placed there in 1818; it replaces there a beautiful statue of XIIIth
century representing the Virgin carrying her son in his arms and
pressing with the feet the dragon, which was relegated, one does not
know when nor why, in the stores of the church of the chapter, in
Saint-Denis.
The gate of Saint Anne
This
gate, dedicated to the life of Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin, is
known mainly because of the polemic concerning the two characters being
reproduced on the tympanum. Around a group including/understanding a
majestic Virgin holding Jesus-Christ child in his arms and two angels
two characters are: a bishop and a king. The tradition wants that these
characters represent the bishop Maurice de Sully, founder of
Notre-Dame, and Louis VII, king of France at the time. But certain
experts question this theory and support that the religious character
is Saint Germain, bishop of Paris to the Life century, and that the
king is Childebert Ist, wire of Clovis. Other experts even affirm that
these characters cannot be identified.
The balcony of the Virgin
This
statue of the Virgin devotes the totality of the frontage to the mother
of Christ. She was ordered by Viollet-le-Duc to replace the original
statue of the medieval time, severely damaged by the climatic years and
conditions. The western rosette being behind this statue constitutes a
splendid aureole.
Viollet-le-Duc
also placed statues of Adam and Eve in front of bays on each side of
the rosette. It acts there, according to the majority of the experts,
the principal error of Viollet-le-Duc in a restoration which, if not,
can be described as remarkable.
All seems to prove that no statue existed on this site. The statues of
Adam and Eve would have in fact due being placed in recesses of the
wall furthest away from the southern arm of the transept.
The
Rose of the Virgin and her stone aureole: It is enough to be in the
good axis and with the passing necessary so that the Virgin, Notre Dame
finally, have the most memorable crown which is: a pink hones 9,60
meters in diameter, built between 1220 and 1225.
This small
chief of work, of a great purity, is visible only of one precise point
of the square, to about thirty meters of the frontage. Let us remember
that at the Average Age, Notre Dame rose in the middle of the houses
and that the square had only one about thirty meters of depth. The
statue was thus placed on a pedestal very precisely calculated so that
the visitor, while leading to the place, is immediately struck by the
spectacle of the crowned Virgin… Yes, yes, that it is what the books
say! But…
But two small note: the prospect plays really only
when one further places oneself, place where houses rose; then, these
statues are not origin, but were drawn, like much, by Viollet-le-Duc.
Then… What imports, after all. The history is beautiful, even if it
lends a little too much to the genius our architects of the Middle Ages.
Rosettes
In
the Middle Ages, all the bays of Notre-Dame of Paris were furnished
with splendid stained glasses. All was destroyed at the 18th century,
except for the three large pinks, of exceptional quality. At the 19th
century, Viollet-le-Duc and his team created new stained glasses in
the medieval style for the side chapels and those of the déambulatoire.
The
three large pinks of Notre-Dame of Paris are the Western pink (1220),
above the large organ which hiding place it with half, and the two
symmetrical pinks of the transepts North (1250) and South (1270) which,
according to the tradition, would have been given by Louis saint. The
stained glasses of the three pinks remained mainly of origin, in spite
of essential cleanings and restorations.
The
Western pink consists of a central medallion representing the Virgin
with the Child, surrounded by three concentric circular bands. On the
basis of the center one first of all observes the series of the twelve
minor prophets, who announced the Incarnation of Jesus. The two
external circular bands oppose in top twelve virtues and twelve
defects; in bottom, they associate work of the months the twelve signs
of the zodiac. The number twelve, produced of three by four (three,
symbol of the Trinity, four, symbol of the terrestrial things) is the
symbol of the Incarnation.
The
Northern pink is devoted to the Old Will. Its dominant violet is sign
of waiting and hope of the arrival of the Messiah. In three circles
eighty characters are represented: prophets, kings, judges and large
priests. In the center is again the Virgin with the Child, realization
of the promise and this fact junction between the Old one and the New
Will.
The
Southern pink is that of the New Will, with dominant red and much more
luminous because of its orientation. It includes/understands
eighty-four medallions distributed on four circles and appear of the
apostles, the martyrs, of the bishops, as well as scenes of the Gospel.
The central medallion, creation of the workshop of Viollet-le-Duc,
represents the Christ of the Apocalypse surrounded of the tétramorphe.
The
open-type screen under the two pinks represents one eighteen kings de
Juda, the other the sixteen prophets, the four of the bearing center on
their shoulders the four evangelists. These stained glasses were remade
at the 19th century by the workshop of Viollet-le-Duc.
The gate of Saint Étienne
This door is at the level of the southern arm of the transept. The tympanum
tells the life of the first Christian martyr, Saint Étienne, according
to Acts' of the Apostles.
The gate of the cloister
This
gate is at the level of the northern arm of the transept. The lower
lintel represents scenes of the childhood of Christ. These sculptures
are among the most beautiful works carved on this topic.
The red gate
The project superintendent Pierre de Montreuil built this small door, called for obvious reasons “the red gate”, between 1250 and 1270. Louis IX, better known under the name of Louis Saint, had commissioned it. He is presented on the tympanum of the Virgin, crowned on the left by an angel. The wife of Louis Saint, Marguerite of Provence, is on the right of Christ.
Southernmost gate of Notre-Dame of Paris
The
door of the Virgin, as the door Saint-Anne or of the South, is furnished
with admirable ornaments or strap hinges out of wrought iron, which
cover the casements with wood. Worked in light arabesques, flowers and
foliages, rinceaux and animal, they hold the first rank among the
capital parts of the iron work in XIIth and XIIIth centuries. They arise
gracefully on the red coating with which one covered the casements.
These wonders of the art of the wrought iron are so beautiful that the
people did not want to believe that they had been carried out by the
hammer of a simple blacksmith. This one would have had recourse to the
devil, which was worth the nickname of Biscornette to him. But the
assistance of malignant did not serve as nothing for the central door
by which Blessed Sacrament leaveleaves the days solemnity; Biscornette
never managed to shoe it, It appears that the architects nowadays used
of more powerful magic spells, because they shoed the large door with
strap hinges very skilfully copied from the side doors.
The apse
The
apse is consisted a half-circle located in the part more at the east of
the cathedral. It was built during the first phase of construction, of
1163 to 1180. A series of propping up admirable supports its wall
higher round-off. It is decorated with sculptures and panels
representing inter alia episodes of the life of the Virgin.
The roof
In
his will, Maurice de Sully left the sum of five thousand sums of money
for the roof of the cathedral, which was covered only with temporary
materials until its death in 1196. The roof is covered with 1326 lead
tiles. The total weight of these tiles is estimated at more than two
tons.
The arrow
The
first arrow was built above transept crossing in the middle of XIIIth
century. Such high arrows suffer from the wind which folds and weakens
their structures. The arrow is deformed slowly, the solids are
distorted, until the total collapse. The arrow of origin was dismounted
in 1786, after more than five centuries of existence. The cathedral
remained without arrow until the restoration directed by
Viollet-the-Duke in the middle of the XIXth century. This arrow is kept
by the statues of the 12 apostles (had in four lines - at each cardinal
points - 3 apostles, those Ci being placed the one below of the
others). All are turned towards Paris, except one of them, Pierre. That
Ci resembles curiously Viollet-the-Duke, the architect of the arrow. It
is a small historical joke of this large architect and restorer.
The bell
The
large bumblebee whose speaks François Villon in his Grant Testament,
gone back to 1461, had been given in 1400 to the cathedral by Jean de
Montaigu, brother of the bishop of Paris, which had baptized it
Jacqueline, of the name of his Jacqueline wife of the Barn. Jacqueline
was remelted in 1686 by foundry foremen Chapelle, Gillot, Moreau and
Florentin Guay, and accepted a new baptism in the name of
Louise-Marie-Thérèse, queen of France, woman of Louis XIV. Jacqueline
weighed only fifteen thousands (7,500 kilogrammes). Marie-Thérèse
weighs a little more of the double (16,000 kilogrammes or 16 tons
metric). The leaf only weighs with him 485 kilogrammes. The thickness
of the bell is 28 cm; the perimeter is 4 meters. A Latin inscription,
placed in relief, reports its adventures and its transformations.
The bumblebee “Emmanuel-Louise-Marie-Thérèse” is located in top of the
422 steps of the southern Tower. One racconte that when it was remelted
in 1631, the women threw in the molten metal their gold jewels, giving
to the bell its single tone in F sharp.
It sounds only with the
great festivals of the year: Christmas, Branches, Easter, the Rise,
Pentecost, the Assumption and All Saints' day, like at the time of
exceptional ceremonies.
Four other bells are in the Northern tower
since 1856, to replace those of the Average Age sent to the cast iron
in 1791 to make guns.
They sound three times per day for the Angelus
at 8 a.m., 12 hours and 19 hours and also for the Office cathédral in
week. Sundays and feastdays, they sound with 9h 45 and 15h 45.
The flight “with the cord” was replaced by the use of pedals at the 19th century.
Maintaining the ringing is operated by remote control electrically.
Notre-Dame of Paris III
The Royal gate and alchemy
The Royal Gate was and is thus still asserted by in favour of astrology and
the hermetists. - The closed door, that of Saint-Anne and Saint-Marcel,
was it and is still by the alchemists.
With hearing them, the récepte, the secrecy of the sublimates stone of wise is registered under the statue which is drawn up one the pier, slicing into two the bay. This rules, - which is only one reproduction, because the original is placed in the room of the Thermal baths, with the Museum of Cluny portraiture has bishop, blessing with has hand its visitors and steam pressing with the feet has dragon left has kind of vault funerary where has dead woman sat in A wrapped shroud of flames.
Simple The reading of this scene is very. It is enough to open Bollandistes. The legend of saint Marcel, ninth bishop of Paris, tells, indeed, that this holy delivered the town of has horrible dragon which had established its lodging in the whetstone sheath of year adulteress, died, without to cuts had time repentance and without to cuts received the sacraments; the holy struck his stick the monster, surrounded him the neck of his stole, took it along to has few miles of Paris, in A deserted, and there, him intima the order, which besides it obeys, never not to turn over more in the city.
Let
custom add this detail, that with the processions of Rogations, the
clergy of Notre-Dame formerly made curry, to remember it this miracle,
has broad dragon of wicker in the open mouth whose the people threw
cakes and fruits. This dress, which went up with the Middle Ages, ended
in 1730.
Such is the version of the Church; other is that of the alchemists. In its race of hermetic philosophy, Cambriel explains this figure thus:
Under
the feet of the bishop, one the bases even of its statue, each side,
two stone rounds are carved. The rounds of right-hand side would Be the
shows of rough natural metal, such have one extracts it from the mine,
the rounds of left, neglected like the first by the Christian symbolic
system, would Be same metal drank purified natural; and that one would
refer to the human figure, sitted, in the sepulchral vault, and which
occurred in the fire of which its shroud is surrounded. Of this tomb
furnace which would Be the philosophical egg, inserted in the athanor,
the dragon, born in its turn from the human figure, would Be, while
rising out of the furnace, in the open air, under the feet of the holy,
the Babylonian dragon butt which Nicolas Flamel speaks, in other words,
Mercury philosophal, the green lion, the milk of the virgin, the
substance even which exchanges by has projection lead into gold.
In this interpretation, saint Marcel would not bless custom any more, goal it would make has gesture of circumspection, which would mean: you conceal, maintain the secrecy yew you understood it.
Yew odd that it appears, this glose is however conceived, because the preparers of the philosopher' S stone edge places themselves under the holy patronage of this who has, indeed, operated several transmutations.
Ounce,
whereas it was yet year only sub-deacon and that it served the mass of
the Prudence bishop, He transmuted into has wine who missed, the
toilets which He had just drawn in the the Seine; another time also, it
changed this same toilets into has liquor scented like chrism.
The choice which the alchemists made of this Elected official to allot the possession of the famous secrecy to him could thus up to has certain point Be justified; however, it is advisable to observes that the official owner of spagyric, with the Middle Ages, was not saint Marcel, goal quite saint Jean the Evangelist, that is to say because has very old legend shows it to custom erudite in art to treat the iron now; maybe because two worms, taken in A passionately literal direction (Which of virgis fecit aurum, Gemmated lapidibus.), sequence woven in its honor by Adam of Saint-Victor, represent it to custom manufacturing with Wood of gold and stones of the gems.
More
fabulous still this other legend appears to custom reporting than has
scruple of the stone of wise was hidden by the Guillaume bishop of
Paris in one of the pillars of the chorus than one will recognize yew one follows the direction of the eye of has corbel
which looks At it, carved one one of the porches, it custom in chaut
not more; what it sied simply to retain, it is that, more than its
congeneric, Notre-Dame of Paris is mysterious, more expert edge-to Be
drank less pure, because it is At the same time catholic and occult and
it grafts one the Christian symbolic system the réceptes of the Cabal.
The inflection of the axis of the chorus
yew one places oneself in the nave of Notre-Dame one edge note that the axis of the chorus incline slightly one the left.
This inflection, we find it almost everywhere, in Saint-Ouen and the
cathedral of Rouen, At Midsummer' S Day of Poitiers, Notre-Dame of
Chartres and Rheims, with Saint-Galien of Turns,
Saint-Germain-of-Meadows, in Paris, with Saint-Nicolas-of-Port, closed
to Nancy, in almost all the broad basilicas of the Middle Ages.
Constant The repetition of this artifice is thus wanted and it has its raison d'être.
However,
until now, it was allowed that this deviation of the axis of the chorus
was year allusion to the attitude of Jesus expiring one the Wood of the
torment; it was the translation, in architectural language, of the
passage of the Gospel according to Midsummer' S Day: “And inclinato
capite, tradidit spiritum.”
At present the symbolic system Be
relegate by it in the - rancarts and one there teach the materialism
archaeological in it that it cuts moreover more low.
Does Is have
booklet entitled “the deviation of the axis of the churches symbolic
system?” and which has have year author Mr. de Lasteyrie, member of the
Institute and one of the podestats of the School, is, from this not of
view, typical.
Mr. de Lasteyrie answers by the negative one his
question, declare that it did not discover any text of the Middle Ages
relating to this subject and it adds At ounce: “Yew ever the chance
made some leave somebody the mysteries of our libraries, I C not
believe that one had to pay great attention to it, because it would Be
insulated enough so that one could boldly argument the been worth of
it.”
Simple young stag are which is. This way of taking the
initiative to deny the importance of any document which would reduce
its thesis to nothing is At the very least ingenuous; it is, in all the
boxes, careful.
At
the same time drank have it attests custom that the slope of the
bedside of the cathedrals is not intentional and was inspired by No
mystical intention, it sort to provide custom the reasons of this
constant anomaly of the axes and to explain custom the causes for which
the architects of the basilicas of the Middle Ages made it.
And At
this not in time this veteran of the paperwork custom exhibe of the
arguments of which extraordinary indigence throw.
After having
told what we know already - that the cathedrals were built by
successive training courses and not of only one jet - very seriously,
He says to custom:
“It from of results that the architects who chaired following work
had to connect new masonries with the shares before built and it was
there problem of which one will include/understand all difficulty, yew
one thinks that the celebration of the worship in share of the church
obliged to raise, between this share and the building site where work
continued, of the partitions gold the walls which intercepted the sight
completely.
However people of the Middle Ages, not knowing any the
instruments which make it possible modern to Be located with precision
and to connect, despite everything the obstacles, the most complicated
lines, tested the greatest embarrassment to take to their reference
marks and has tiny error had have has consequence has deviation very
marked in alignments. “
And
it is not more malignant than this! Permanent The irregularities of the
cathedrals simply hold with this that the architects of the Middle Ages
did not know to their trade and were not equipped with modern
instruments.
With Wood apron tended between the built share and that
to build was enough to make them roofing stone the head and all were
mistaken, none in its calculations did not fall right.
Obviously the
scribing tools which built, in the XIXth century, Saint-François-Xavier,
Our-Lady-of-Fields and Saint-Pierre de Montrouge were extremely higher,
like science, with the poor architects which built the cathedrals of
Chartres, of Rheims, of Paris, drunk them, did not make inadvertencies;
they complied with the intangible rules of the chalk line, they did not
make lean the chorus of to their churches!
Such are the let us lessons of monumental orthopedy which are output now At the school of Charters. (huysmans)
Year
explanation of Mr. Guingamp: “This variation of axis small channels
from has shift one the one hand between the terrestrial meridian line
and the stake celestial BASIC , one the other hand of the difference
existing in horizon between the rising of the sun and the set,
the same day. One June 21, the sun small channels in solar squaring and
binds down in lunar squaring and one December 22 it is the opposite.
The day of spring, there is 3°5 approximately shift.”
It is enough then following has dedication, to move number of desired dismantle the axis of the nave, according to the day of the holy.
Central The astrology and zodiac of the gate
There
the gate of the Virgin of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Paris (western
frontage) is represented is Zodiac which edge appear somewhat strange.
One
the left side, we find in A direction descending the signs from the
Lion, the Gemini, the Bull, the RAM, Poisson and Aquarius (thesis the
last two signs escape the tightened presented plan). One the right side
are represented, always in A direction going down, the signs of Cancer
(in the past named the Crayfish, which is reproduced indeed one the
monument), of the Virgin, the Balance, the Scorpion, Sagittarius and
the Capricorn (thesis the last two signs escape the tightened presented
plan). This order of presentation edge appear surprising. Yew we refer
to the Wheel zodiacale, the order of succession of the signs during the
year does not provide any explanation one the sequence suggested.
One the other hand, yew we refer to the interior order of the Zodiac, the difficulty disappears. This order founded one two branches, one is marked by the Lion, the other by Cancer. This organization answers the principle of polarization between Sky and Ground, credit and liability, female male and, yang and yin, gasoline and substance, etc general Its diagram is obtained while placing the two signs principiels (Lion for the male, Cancer for the female one) in signal. Thesis two signs open each one has branch including/understanding five signs placed under to their respective jurisdiction, like have many attributes included/understood in their natural.
Two branches of the Zodiac
The
branch marked by the Lion opens has series conspicuous to follow one
another Vierge, Balance, Scorpion; Sagittarius and Capricorn and that
the branch marked by Cancer governs the succession of the Gemini, the
Bull, the RAM, Poisson and Aquarius. We find in thesis two orders those
being reproduced one the small columns of the gate of the Virgin, with
year exception. Indeed, one the monument, the low-reliefs of the Lion
and Cancer are reversed. Under the Lion the signs of the Gemini are
located, of the Bull, the RAM, Poisson and Aquarius, pertaining to the
Cancer branch. Under Cancer seat the signs of the Virgin take, of the
Balance, the Scorpion, Sagittarius and the Capricorn, raising all of
the solar branch. It is young stag by No means of year error, goal butt
what Rene Guénon called has “exchange hierogamic”. This last consists
in the exchange between the male attributes (celestial) and the female
ones (terrestrial).
Rene
Guénon quotes the example, drawn from the Chinese Tradition, Fo Hi
(figure celestial) and Niou Koua (terrestrial figure). The first gives
to the second the compass (the circle being has form symbolizing the
Sky) and the second gives to the first the public garden (the public
garden being has form symbolizing the Earth). The “exchange hierogamic”
puts forward the meeting of the Sky and the Earth, generating the
demonstration. This aspect arises thus in the gate of Notre-Dame: the
male principle (Lion) gives the signs under its jurisdiction to the
female principle (Cancer) and reciprocally.
It
appears interesting to note that only the first furnace signs of each
branch take seat one the side columns. The signs located partly low of
the interior organization of the Zodiac (Poisson and Aquarius, one the
one hand, Sagittarius and Capricorn of the other) ugly are out one the
bases one which the aforementioned columns rest. This positioning
symbolizes has proximity with the substantial, passivates principle
(Earth of Far-Eastern). This one consists in the support being used for
the gasoline to appear, which is expressed by the architectural
composition of the studied share of the gate, similar of that of the
Zodiac. Let custom recall that, in A traditional company, all is
subordinated to the principles. Any expressed thing constitutes only
one symbol of higher realities. Thus, crowned architecture, art whose
raises construction of the cathedrals, applies this principle: monument
is used to symbolize some have truths. We find in the recourse to
symbolism zodiacal within the buildings catholic the fastening of
Western astrology to this Tradition, translating into this the biblical
Word (Genesis):
“1.14
God known have: That there are luminaries in the extent of the sky, to
separate the day from with the night; that they are signs to mark the
times, the days and the years;
1.15 and that they are used have luminaries in the extent of the sky, to light the ground. And that was thus.
1.16
Broad God made the two luminaries, the largest luminary to govern the
day, and the smallest luminary to govern the night; He made also stars.
1.17 God placed them in the extent of the sky, to light the ground,
1.18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from with darkness. “
The Zodiac itself, its figuration one some religious monuments and this text have many expressions different from the same reality, presenting from the different points of view one this same object, being supplemented all to make reach has knowledge.
Notre-Dame of Paris is the most satisfactory summary of hermetic science. ”
(Victor Hugo)
While Low Sunday wandered one the heights of Notre-Dame, sharing its sufferings with the waste-gas hands, the archdeacon Claude Frollo, have for him, gorged itself with the hermetic symbols contained one the frontage of the cathedral but, more precisely, has symbol now disappeared: the corbel.
Victor Hugo describes Frollo “calculating the angle of the look of this corbel which is due to the gate of left and which looks in the church has mysterious not where is certainly hidden to philosophize stone”. Hugo adds that it is with the Guillaume bishop of Paris that one owes “this page of black book written out of stone”. It is him which would cuts hidden the stone (perhaps that of Nicolas Flamel) in one of the pillars of the nave.
Another
tradition, reported to the XVIIth century by Gobineau de Montluisant,
speaks butt has stone corbel one the curves of the central door which
would cuts the eye directed towards the place where “the sunbeams are
hidden which will Be transformed into gold At the end of thousand years
and diamond At the end of three thousand years”. The Fulcanelli
alchemist, in the Mysteries of the cathedrals (1926), confirms thesis
beliefs.
Several remain questions drank. First of all, which was this Guillaume of Paris? Yew there were well has bishop corresponding to that butt which speaks Hugo, Guillaume of Auvergne (professor of theology and bishop of Paris of 1228 to 1249), one knows few things butt his unspecified alchemical gold esoteric vocation and participation in the construction of the cathedral yew it is not that it offered the bell of the southern tower. One also evokes the name of the bishop Guillaume Chartier, goal it correspond of nothing to the dates the construction of Notre-Dame (it died in 1472 whereas the cathedral was almost completed At the end of XIIIth century). However could it Be has question of Guillaume, broad Inquisiteur from Paris, in which Philippe IV entrusted, this famous date of October 13, 1307, the arrest of all Templars of the kingdom of France?
Does Would to philosophize stone Be then have kind of symbol of the mysterious treasure of Templars, object of all covetousnesses and all the fictions during centuries?
Then,
have for the corbel itself - yew have well is have there ever existed -
it today disappeared (like many of other architectural elements) from
the frontage of the cathedral. Does Hugo specify that it was one the
gate of left, the gate of the Virgin, goal one which exact site? Is it
necessary to consider the medallion with the dove, allegory of the
Humility, in which Fulcanelli sees the corbel of the alchemists, symbol
of materia PRIMA and the putrefaction? However one of the doves of the
gate of the Virgin?
“It is in this share of the porch that was
formerly carved the major hiéroglyphe of our practice: the corbel.
Principal appears of the hermetic blazon, the corbel of Notre-Dame,
from time unmemorable, had exerted has very sharp attraction one the
peat of the blowers: it is that year old legend indicated it like the
individual reference mark of has crowned deposit. ” (Fulcanelli, COP
cit.)
With
tradition calls upon the Wise Virgins contained in the oven wall of the
central gate, under the scene of the last Judgement, of which one of
them would indicate the stone bird by its explicit position. Drank the
indications vague are, and the architectural speech is often scrambled
between symbolism esoteric and reality. Does edge one exclude have
layman interpretation from the Word corbel, which indicates in
architecture has covering stone element, drink gold metal intended to
support has beam gold has lintel?
It is known that Notre-Dame of Paris has long time has place of appointment of the alchemists who puts under the gates of St Marcel, St Anne and the last Judgement. Is it more than this stone book which Hugo evoked drank? its stones contain some unimaginable treasure? Had the creator of Esmeralda understood that the cathedral contained some unimaginable treasure, and makes of its heroin the incarnation of this “emerald of wise” gold “philosophical Mercury” of the spagiric tradition?
Thus let us leave the last word to the gilded Worms of Gerard de Nerval:
“Often in being obscure for it lives hidden God;
And like an eye incipient covered by its eyelids,
A pure spirit increases under the stone bark. ”
Symbolic system of the cathedral
the
vertical rise in the cathedral reproduces the superposition of the
three levels of the universe. The crypt then symbolizes the underground
world, the walls and the ground, the space of the men, and the arrows
and turns, the divine world, so that the universal harmony is preserved.
Horizontally, the architects called upon a solar symbolic system. The chorus is directed towards the east, with the rising of the sun, logically making back in the west, symbol of the end of time. Thus, the northern side, fallen into the shade from the sun, will express the sin and evil, while the southern side, richly illuminated, will be devoted to the glory of Christ.
Notre-Dame is particularly rich in alchemical symbols. She leads us on the way of the wisdom which begin with a deep self-knowledge, by the determination of the matter to transmute. It is enough more precisely to study its Western frontage for better including/understanding this occult dimension.
The
Western frontage of the cathedral is associated the three interior
rosettes, the unit describing the initiatory way of the alchemists, a
route external with cosmic dimension and an interior route with human
dimension.
The rosettes are indeed the symbol of the way between
original darkness and the achievement of work. They carry in them by
their concentric form the idea of perpetual restarting.
For better understanding, it is necessary to leave the central pillar
and the statue of Cybèle, Phrygian goddess of wisdom. It carries two
books being able to represent the Old one and the New Will. More
precisely, the first, in opened position, evokes knowledge by the Texts
and the second, closed, interior knowledge. This alchemical
combination, spiritual step and knowledge of the writings, will carry
the beginner until wisdom. Outside, the course starts with the gate of
Holy Anne, mother of the Virgin, where the birth of Christ is
illustrated. This is why the southern rosette which corresponds to him
represents Christ Architect of the world. We are at the beginning of
the way, at the origins of the World. It is precisely with this
beginning which the putrefaction with the alchemists can be associated,
work with the black. It is a question of removing the impurities of the
matter what spiritually means to purify the heart.
The course
continues with the gate of the Virgin representing the temporal cycle
of the seasons and work. The Western rosette reciprocally evokes the
night sky and the synthesis of work. It is then a question of
spiritualizing the matter (here the man), to restore its heart with the
body purified previously.
Lastly, the central gate presents the last judgement, achieved work,
in other words the “Philosopher's stone”. Its medallions guide us in
the stages to be followed.
With the alchemical direction, the
central gate is the balance between the virtue and the defect, a
confrontation of its own bilateral nature.
The
iconography of the gate indeed takes again the symbols employed by the
alchemists of the time. Each medallion has its complement vis-a-vis
him, symmetrically compared to the central axis.
They are an
invitation with the transmutation of oneself: it is a question of
regarding the defects as a raw material and malleable in order to
transform them into virtues.
For example, to pride and inconstancy humility and perseverance are
opposed. These two virtues must make it possible to fight the two
defects associated and so on with the list given in the following table:
North:
Virtues: Job on its manure, Humility, Wisdom or prudence, Justice, Charity, Hope, Faith.
Defects: Pride, Madness, Injustice, Avarice, Despair, Impiété.
South:
Virtues:
Abraham close to the furnace bridge, Perseverance, Obedience or tender,
Harmony or Peace, Softness, Patience, Force or courage.
Defects: Inconstancy, Spirit of rebellion, Discord, Hardness, Anger, Lacheté.
The alchemical universe of Notre-Dame takes up very well the idea of man as a matter and an actor of the Philosopher's stone, an at the same time material and spiritual dimension.
Numerology
Let us point out the proportions E the cathedral:
Solar length 127m50 1+2+7+5=15=1+5=6 a Number
Width of the central nave 12m50 1+2+5=8 a Number of the evolution of the alive beings
Height of the central nave 32m50 3+2+5=10 a Number of plenitude
These esoteric dimensions must recall the men whom they will reach plenitude with the sky and not on the ground, and of this fact they must direct their glances towards the sky… reason height of the central nave.
Earth currents
According to Andre Bouchet, they are 4:
- A first, to 69m of depth, passes to the foot of the northern tower
and moves in diagonal towards the telluric node of Notre-Dame towards
the East. (Mannheim, Hagueneau, Sarreguemines, Metz, Verdun, Rheims,
Meaux, Paris, Versailles, Dreux, Mortagne, Alençon, Mayenne, Autrain,
Fraud-of-Brittany, Saont-Malo, Jersey, Guernesey, Bournemouth and
Stonehenge)
it second, to 78m, moves towards north. (Brussels,
Oudemaarde, Lille, Arras, Amiens, Beauvais, Senlis, Paris, Versailles,
Chartres, Orleans, Bourges, Mills, Clermont-Ferrand, Rodez, Albi,
Toulouse, Borough-Madam, Andorra and finish in Spain)
it third, with
92m, in direction of the East. (Stuttgart, Sarrebourg, Strasbourg,
Metz, the Trawl-net-on-Marne, Paris, Evreux, Lisieux, Caen, Carentan,
Cherbourg, Bournemouth)
it fourth, with 83m, also in direction of
the East. (The Tyrol, Zurich, Lucerne, Basle, Mulhouse, Belfort,
Vesoul, Chaumont, Troyes, Melun, Paris, Chartres, Mans, Laval, Rennes,
Saint-Brieuc, Guingamp, Morlaix, Brest, the Atlantic)
The most important water current, charged in éléctro-magnetic tellurism, therefore to radioactive and curative water, moves towards the East. (Germany, Apperwiller, Erstein, south of Strasbourg, Bar-le-Duc, Nancy, Toul, Vitry-the-François, Sézanne, Paris, Chartres, Chateaudun, Vendôme, Turns, Poitiers, Niort, La Rochelle where it is divided into two branches: Island of D, island of Oléron, the Atlantic and Angouleme, Bordeaux, Saint-Jean-foot-of-Port and Spain)
http://www.cathedraledeparis.com/FR/0.asp
http://ndparis.free.fr/
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_Notre-Dame_de_Paris
http://www.huysmans.org/troiseglise/dame.htm
http://www.astro-tradition.com/zodiaque-notre-dame.html
http://www.paris-pittoresque.com/monuments/6b.htm
http://endirectdelacave.wordpress.com/2007/02/06/ou-est-passe-le-corbeau-de-notre-dame/
http://www.cathedrale-paris.net/histoire.html#alchimie
Esotericism of the cathedrals of Rene and Claudine Bouchet
Mysterious cathedrals of Maurice Guingand
Crypt of the square of Notre-Dame (Paris)
The
archaeological Crypt under the square of Notre-Dame of Paris was
arranged to protect the vestiges discovered at the time of the
excavations carried out since 1965, by the Commission of the Old man
Paris (department of history of architecture and archaeology).
It
is not a question of a museum but of the presentation of the ruins
preserved in the ground of the Island of the City covering the period
ranging between IIIth and the XIXth century.
This
space, vastest of the kind at the time, opened its doors in 1980 with
for objective the presentation of the elements of the buildings which
followed one another on the site of Antiquity the XIXth century:
Gallo-Roman quay, sections of the foundation of the rampart set up in
IVe century, vestiges of a large urban house dating from IVth century)
whose several parts comprise hypocaustes (heating system which the
Romans used in the public and deprived thermal baths),
foundations
of large building of form basilicale with five naves (perhaps basilica
Saint-Etienne (Life century) whose dimensions (36 m broad on 70 m
length) let think that it was the largest church of Gaule), foundations
of the Holy-Genevieve church of Burning (Ixe century), basement of the
old vault of the Hospital, foundations of the old people's home of
Child-Found, traced haussmannians sewers.
The
site was born in the Island from the City, with the crossing of a river
road and a terrestrial road. The Seine and its affluents gave the means
of communication by water, the basement provided the stone to be built
and the stone with plaster.
Gallic Lutèce:
Parisii seem to have been fixed in the middle of IIIth front century
J.C. César holds an assembly in their city, Lutèce, in 53 front J.C.
They are raised into 52 with the call of Vercingétorix. Labiénus,
lieutenant of César crushes them.
Gallo-Roman Lutèce:
The Roman
conquerors install a new city on the height of left bank the Island of
the city seems to have played a secondary part then.
Cruel invasions - Bottom Empire:
The Germanic invasions of the end of IIIth century a. J.C devastate the Gallo-Roman city. IVth and Vth centuries, Paris plays a great strategic part. The military emperors, who defended the border of North and the East, there remain: Julien the Apostate in 357-358, then in 359-360, Valentinien in 365 and 366. About the moment when, in Lutèce, Julien is high with the row of Auguste by his soldiers (360 a. J.C.), the city starts to lose its name to take that of Paris.
High-Empire
remain of the traces of habitat (among which the archaeologists
discovered a bronze statuette of the Génius god), sections of the quay
and port antiques of Lutèce as well as a powerful wall with buttress,
for which there is difficult to give an interpretation.
The
Lower Empire is preserved sections of the foundation of the rampart set
up at IVe century of our era, after the cruel invasions of the end of
IIIth century. It is made up of large blocks of which some are
re-employments. It is with the foot of this rampart that a treasure was
discovered in 1970, a brown ceramics which contained more than 800
currencies.
The capital of the kingdom of Clovis:
It becomes truly a capital when Clovis, king of Frank (482-511) there establishes the seat of his kingdom. His/her son, Childebert 1st (511-588), makes build in the City the large church Saint-Etienne cathedral, whose plan with five vessels was similar to that of the first Saint-Pierre of Rome. The foundations which were 36 m wide and at least 70 m length and that one finds under the current cathedral, were put at the day in the excavations - in particular part of the frontage. Its dimensions probably made of it the largest church of Gaule.
The Average Age:
At the time Carolingian, the sovereigns, turned towards the East, forsake the capital to such a degree that it is the Account of Paris, Eudes, ancestor of Capetians, which defends the city against the Norman ones. After the very long seat of 885 the city is reduced to the Island of the City. In 1163, the bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, begins the frontage of Notre-Dame. The merovingian cathedral Saint-Etienne is cut down. A way, the Neuve Notre-Dame street is traced in order to convey materials necessary to the construction of the cathedral. Leading to the Square, in the center of the frontage of Notre-Dame, it is the basement of this way which is presented in the crypt. This street of seven meters width was opened by Maurice de Sully, towards the end of XIIth century, in order to convey materials necessary to the construction of the cathedral.
The Square until the medium of XVIIIth century
• In edge of the Seine, between this one and the New Notre-Dame street, the old Hospital. It communicated with its dependences of
left bank by two buildings (the vault Co.-Agnes, of XVth century), the
room of the Legate, XVIth;
• in the East close to Notre-Dame, was its own vault. A small street and houses separated it from the street Neuve Notre-Dame.
•
In the North of the street (side of the current
buildings of the Hospital) was houses and two churches, saint-Genevieve
of Burning (which one sees foundations in the crypt), with the West,
and Saint-Christophe, towards Notre-Dame.
The installation of the Square in 1750:
In the middle of XVIIIth century, the Boffrand architect was charged to build a new old people's home of Child-Found, northern side of the street Neuve Notre-Dame. He increases a little the square, widens the street Neuve Notre-Dame towards north to build his building. In 1772, a large fire devastates the Hospital: the vault Co.-Agnes, the room of the Legate are destroyed. The hospital buildings the length of the Seine will be rebuilt.
The Square of Haussmann and the current Square:
Haussmann extended the square in a disproportionate way, raised a barracks (today Prefecture of Police force) at the bottom of the place and, in edge of this one, current Hôtel-Dieu. The Square became a space bituminized with the end of which the cathedral seemed reduced.
The installation of the Square (1970):
The construction of the archaeological crypt made it possible to give to the Square a relief and an aspect which evoke its old state. A unevenness marks the Western limit of the Square former to work of Boffrand (from there one can appreciate colossal dimensions of the towers of the cathedral). The space occupied by the old street Neuve Notre-Dame is marked by sett paving; the line of the frontages is announced by white stones on which the names of their signs are engraved. A different paving appears the plan of the church mérovingienne Saint-Etienne (except for 5 vessel, in North, to the site of which the roadway passes.
http://www.parissweethome.com/parisrentals/art_fr.php?id=34
http://www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=6468&document_type_id=5&document_id=19971&portlet_id=14628
http://www.insecula.com/salle/MS00993.html