13 Intriguing Facts About Notre-Dame Cathedral

Built between the 12th and 14th centuries, Notre-Dame de Paris holds over 800 years of French history in its stone. The Gothic cathedral stands as a testament to Paris’ status as an economic and spiritual hub in the 12th century. Its scars from the French Revolution serve as lasting reminders of its deep connection to the monarchy—a connection that nearly led to its destruction. Today, thousands of visitors admire its rose windows and flying buttresses every day.

On April 15, 2019, disaster struck as a fierce fire consumed the cathedral. The flames caused significant damage to the masonry and destroyed parts of the building, including the wooden roof, iron spire, and more. Hundreds of firefighters fought tirelessly to extinguish the fire. Amidst the devastation, President Emmanuel Macron vowed that Notre-Dame would be restored, and even rebuilt more beautifully, within five years.

Now, with the restoration almost complete and the grand reopening set for December 2024, as well as tourists pouring into Paris for the Summer Olympics, let’s explore 13 fascinating, lesser-known facts about Notre-Dame de Paris.

A pagan city lies beneath the cathedral.

The Île-de-la-Cité, the island where Notre-Dame de Paris is located, was once home to a Gallo-Roman city called Lutetia. The cathedral may have been constructed atop the ruins of an ancient temple: In 1710, fragments of a sculpted altar dedicated to Jupiter and other gods were uncovered during an excavation beneath the choir. While it's unclear whether these pieces came from an ancient temple or were repurposed from another site, further architectural remains from the same period were discovered in the 1960s and '70s. Many of these artifacts are now housed in the archaeological crypt beneath the square in front of Notre-Dame.

Notre-Dame’s façade incorporates some recycled architectural elements.

The western façade of Notre-Dame is adorned with three grand portals, each decorated with intricate sculptures of saints and sacred scenes. Yet, one portal stands out—the Portal Sainte-Anne, which displays an earlier, more archaic style. The figures, including the central Virgin and Child, appear more rigid and less lifelike compared to the other sculptures. This tympanum, or semi-circular decorative area, was actually repurposed from a previous Romanesque church. A detailed inspection in 1969 confirmed that it wasn't originally designed for this location but had been adapted to fit into the Gothic architecture.

The roof of Notre-Dame once housed its very own 'forest.'

Before the fire, the cathedral boasted one of the oldest surviving wood-timber frames in Paris, composed of approximately 52 acres of trees felled in the 12th century. Every beam was made from a single tree, leading to the nickname for this intricate wooden latticework—'the forest.'

Its flying buttresses were groundbreaking, setting new standards for Gothic architecture.

The cathedral was one of the first buildings to feature exterior flying buttresses. These were added around the nave in the 12th century to support the thin walls, which had to accommodate larger windows due to the desire for more natural light in the tall structure. The exposed flying buttresses became a hallmark of Gothic architecture, and while there’s some debate over whether Notre-Dame was the first church to use them, they undeniably set a trend in sacred architectural design.

28 of its kings met their fate during the French Revolution.

In 1793, amidst the chaos of the French Revolution, a mob tore down and decapitated 28 statues of biblical kings from the cathedral, using ropes. (Earlier that year, King Louis XVI was guillotined, and any symbolism related to the monarchy was targeted.) The mutilated statues were discarded in a trash heap, which the interior minister decided to repurpose for construction. It wasn't until 1977 that the heads of 21 of these kings were rediscovered during excavation work at the French Bank of Foreign Trade's basement. They are now displayed at the nearby Musée de Cluny.

The towers of Notre-Dame are not identical.

At first glance, the two towers of Notre-Dame might seem like identical siblings. However, upon closer inspection, you'll notice that the north tower is slightly larger than the south one. As with all parts of the cathedral, these towers were constructed over time, representing a fusion of architectural styles and leadership, rather than the singular vision of one architect.

Its bells were once repurposed to make artillery.

The kings weren’t the only elements of Notre-Dame that were destroyed during the French Revolution. Like many churches across France, the cathedral was repurposed in the late 18th century and dedicated to the new Cult of Reason. All 20 of its bells—except for the enormous 1681 bourdon named Emmanuel—were removed and melted down to produce cannons.

In the 19th century, the bells of Notre-Dame were replaced, but the newer bells lacked the craftsmanship of the old ones, producing a more jarring and discordant sound when they rang. It wasn’t until 2013 that a new set of bells was installed, bringing the cathedral’s sound back to its 17th-century resonance, with the Emmanuel bell still participating in the special tolls on significant occasions.

Napoleon and Victor Hugo played key roles in preserving Notre-Dame from destruction.

When Napoleon Bonaparte chose Notre-Dame for his 1804 coronation as emperor, the cathedral was in dire condition. Years of neglect, along with the devastation caused during the French Revolution, had almost led to its demolition. For many years, it had been relegated to a storage space. However, Napoleon's decision to restore it to a place of worship and host his monumental coronation there—an event in which he famously crowned himself—gave Notre-Dame new prominence and significance.

Yet, despite the coronation, the building's structural issues remained unresolved. Then, in 1831, author Victor Hugo immortalized the cathedral as a symbol of France in his novel *Notre-Dame de Paris* (often translated as *The Hunchback of Notre-Dame*). Though Quasimodo, the bell ringer, is often the focus in popular adaptations, Hugo’s novel centers on Notre-Dame itself. He vividly depicted the cathedral’s decaying state in the 19th century:

“Noble though it has remained with the passage of time, one cannot help but feel sorrow, and even indignation, at the countless degradations and mutilations inflicted upon this venerable structure—both by the ravages of time and the hands of men, indifferent to the deeds of Charlemagne, who laid the first stone, and Philip Augustus, who laid the last. On the face of this ancient queen of our cathedrals, alongside each wrinkle, one inevitably finds a scar. 'Tempus edax, homo edacior,' a phrase I would translate as: 'Time is blind, but man is foolish.'”

The book achieved great success, and the momentum sparked a significant restoration project, led by architects Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

Its monsters are contemporary, not ancient.

Some of the most iconic images of Notre-Dame come from the vantage point of its gargoyles or chimera (the intricately carved monsters that don't function as waterspouts). Few visitors would realize that these fantastical creatures weren't part of the cathedral until the 19th century; they were added between 1843 and 1864 during the bold restoration led by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

Hugo had thoroughly described gargoyles in Notre-Dame de Paris, and Viollet-le-Duc was said to have drawn inspiration from this romanticized view of the past. A daguerreotype taken before the restoration reveals a more austere building than the one we recognize today, lacking the creatures that now perch on its towers, as the medieval gargoyles had been removed long ago. Before the fire, many of the 19th-century gargoyles were deteriorating, with PVC pipes replacing those that had been taken down for safety reasons.

The gargoyles weren't the only imaginative additions made by architect Viollet-le-Duc. Among the 12 apostles he positioned around the new spire, he included his own likeness as the face of Saint Thomas.

Its spire served as a holy lightning rod.

Pictures of the cathedral before the fire show a rooster atop the spire. This rooster wasn't just for decoration. In 1935, three small relics—a supposed fragment of the Crown of Thorns and pieces of Saint Denis and Saint Genevieve, the patron saints of the city—were placed inside the rooster's metal body. The tale went that it acted as a spiritual lightning rod, meant to safeguard the parishioners below.

Its organ is believed to be the largest in all of France.

The Notre-Dame organ features nearly 8,000 pipes, some of which date back to the 18th century, and is played using five keyboards, making it the largest pipe organ in France (though some argue that the one at Saint-Eustache is even larger). The organ underwent restoration in 2013 to celebrate the cathedral's 850th anniversary, and fortunately, it survived the 2019 fire with only water damage from the firefighters' hoses. It is still in the process of being cleaned and decontaminated.

All roads lead to Notre-Dame de Paris.

Beneath the crowds of tourists gathered around Notre-Dame lies a small circular marker with an eight-pointed bronze star embedded in the cobblestones. It’s inscribed with the words Point zéro des routes de France, marking the point from which all distances are measured from Paris to other cities in France. Placed there in 1924, it was temporarily moved in the 1960s during excavation work for what was to be an underground parking garage. However, the construction project was abandoned when workers uncovered architectural ruins—now preserved in the archaeological crypt.

Bees still thrive atop the roof, continuing their existence despite the challenges.

A small beehive was placed on the Notre-Dame sacristy, beside the cathedral, in 2013. The hive was home to Buckfast bees, a breed developed by Brother Adam, a monk, known for their calm nature. The honey they produced came from the plants blooming in nearby gardens, like the Square Jean XXIII right behind the cathedral, and was later distributed to the needy.

Against all odds, the 180,000 bees endured the catastrophic fire. They refused to leave their queens, sheltering in their hives and surviving on honey. A year later, they were pollinating flowers and producing honey as they had before the disaster.