The History of Notre Dame - What's At Stake

given the recent fire that engulfed the notre-dame Cathedral in Paris I wanted to offer viewers some perspective on the story of this famous building well we can by taking a look at the history of Paris up to the point of its construction before zooming in specifically to deal with the cathedral itself if you'd like to skip ahead please refer to these video timestamps paris in antigua notre dam sits at the eastern end of the Ile de la Cite day in the heart of Paris this area has deep historical roots in antiquity the region was inhabited by a celtic tribe known as the parisi in about 250 BC they established their chief city by the river sin according to the geographer strabo the city was actually formed from twin settlements one on the river island and another on the fortified hill on the Montana sensation of yet over time the town became quite prosperous and was known to mint its own gold coins when the Romans took over in the 1st century BC the city known as Leticia Parashuram was reorganized with their customary grid planning and rapidly expanded it featured an aqueduct a forum baths temples theaters and an amphitheater a governor's palace was even built on the western end of the Ile de les he did thanks to these modern additions Pliny the Elder added this otherwise small settlement to his list of the most notable towns of Gaul in the late Roman Empire ancient Paris would continue to see more change for starters leticia Parashuram was now simply referred to as Perseus in addition the still very much Roman town was becoming increasingly Christianized and by the 4th century would see its first bishop appointed and its first cathedral built other external forces also altered the city's landscape barbarian invasions for instance caused parts of the city to be abandoned stones from the Bruins were then used to build new structures such as a large wall around the Ile de la Cite a as well as the new basilica and baths today the remains actually lie beneath the plaza in front of the notodden despite these setbacks the city was not entirely forgotten and the Emperor Julian even made it his winter quarters for a time yet by the 4th century the waning Roman imperial authority in the West was taking its toll the breakdown in the M hires economic network and military protections had a rather drastic impact on paresis which fell into a notable decline however the town and specifically that yielded ICT would never fully lose their importance thanks to their inherited offenses and strategic control of the river Paris in the Middle Ages the Middle Ages would see much of Western Europe come under new management this began during the fourth to fifth centuries when Germanic tribes increasingly made their way into Roman lands one of them the Franks would settle in northern Gaul defeat the last vestiges of Roman authority and established their rule though at first fractured the Frankish tribes would be united under Clovis who founded the Merovingian dynasty his new Frankish Kingdom would make Paris ium its capital in 508 from the 6th to the 11th centuries the Frankish realms would be in a constant state of fracture and consolidation thanks to traditions of divided inheritance which applied even to the sons of Kings thus the more of engiand dynasty of Clovis would give way to the Carolingian dynasty of Charles Martel which in turn would be split into three after the death of Charlemagne in 814 these territories would find themselves further divided as power devolved down to the level of count and Baron this was especially true in the lands of West Frankia the impact of this instability on Paris was that its development slowed rather dramatically because the church remained is one of the few institutions was constant power most of the new construction came in the form of religious edifices such as cathedrals basilica's and monasteries the university was always a source of some activity but the right bank of the river remained quite unpopulated and even the left bank was slow moving some wooden barricades were added as defense but the city as a whole remained quite vulnerable this would prove to be a problem in the 9th century when Vikings repeatedly launched attacks up the cen the outlying lands were often ravaged but the universe heated with its large walls and fortresses would serve as an impenetrable refuge for the population at the end of the 10th century the Capetian dynasty of Hugh kept a rose to rule the western Franks their reign would breathe new life into the city of Paris prosperity returned gradually old structures were restored new buildings founded and the right bank of the sand was finally populated over the following centuries Paris developed into an important commercial cultural and religious center and the seat of the royal administration the 12th century in particular so the city experienced an urban Renaissance as large building projects were funded by Kings bishops and powerful guilds among these will be the Cathedral of Notre Dame construction of Notre Dame as we previously stated Notre Dame would be built on the eastern end of Edith Alessi day it would actually be replacing the older Cathedral of Santa Tien which was itself located atop yet more ancient Roman ruins the idea for the project was that of Maurice de Sully the Bishop of Paris his plan was to create a new place of worship there would be larger and taller than any before it and which would be able to employ the latest architectural styles and techniques playing took place in the eleven 60s as the intellectual and material resources of the city were marshaled for the project these would come to fruition in 1163 when the official start of construction began with the first stone being laid in the presence of Pope Alexander the third however work would continue in stages of improvement and expansion for two centuries the building that took form would be a child of the gothic architectural movement this meant that it would be characterized by tall cavernous spaces with large stained-glass windows to bring in natural light the gigantic structure was made possible by extensive use of rib vaults and flying buttresses which allowed the weight of the roof to be counterbalanced by elements outside the building the Gothic style is also noted for its prominent use of statues on the exterior upon his completion miss Laden would lead the charge on many architectural developments and would be remembered as one of the foremost examples of the Gothic style the basic floor plan of the Cathedral followed the Gothic tradition which was itself modeled after the Roman basilica's as such a formed the shape of a Latin cross and noted on the interior of the shape is measured at around 130 by 48 meters with the ceiling at just over 30 metres tall the cross shape is broken down into several important elements will summarize these briefly now the base of the cross is the main entrance which by tradition faces west it has three arched entry ways with an enormous Rose window above it these are flanked by 268 metre tall towers just past this is the lower part of the cross known as the nave which houses the congregation this area fits about 1,000 people and is slang by sets of columns and aisles backed by walls filled with many windows the central bar of the cross is known as the transept either ends of it have smaller doorways with additional sets of rose windows above them these are beautiful and at midday shed fantastic light into the structure the intersection at the very center of the Cross has four giant columns at its corners which help support the weight of a spire that reaches out above the roof on the upper part of the Cross is the choir where the altar is located this is where important ceremonies take place and where only the clergy was loud walkways on either flank called ambulatory x' allow for procession behind the altar at the final top end of the cross is the semicircular area with large clerestory windows known as the apse here is a special Chapel dedicated to Nikodim Our Lady the Virgin Mary an additional structure known as the sexy ste was added to the south of the transept to house treasures of the cathedral looking vertically now the cathedral can be seen to divide into levels the interior elevation was originally of four bands with an arcade of columnar piers a Tribune urgently covered with traverse barrel vaults and lit by round windows decorative oculi opening to the Tribune roof spaces and small clerestory windows directly above these were the wood timber frames that supported the tin roof until the recent fire these were once the older surviving timber frames in Paris they were so immense that it took about 52 acres of trees to make them in the 12th century each beam is reputed to have been made of an individual tree thus earning the lattice structure the nickname the forest decorating the rest of the cathedrals top are many other amazing elements such as gargoyles reliefs and church bells adding to this are the countless other elements inside and below that I've unfortunately had to gloss over simply put it's difficult to capture the sheer magnitude of work that has gone into the note totem neutral down through the ages I now wanted to talk about the history of neutral down up to the present as we mentioned and went through an initial stage of construction from the 12th to early 13th century during the reign of the late Commission dynasty another phase of building took place at the end of the 13th century just before the start of the Hundred Years War expansion to the Cathedral notably included the addition of many large flying buttresses and the enlargement of the transepts the next major set of changes occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries during the reigns of king louis xiv and louis 15th they were largely interested in renovation projects meant to bring the cathedral up to the more classical style of the period this included rebuilding the choir and marble replacing many of the original stained glass windows and restoring the south grows additionally it was decided that the original spire was so damaged by centuries of wind that it had to be removed there would be more removal coming soon at the end of the 18th century with the outbreak of the French Revolution during this period much of France was subject to quite violent changes religious institutions in particular felt the brunt of de-christianization efforts noted on was a rather large target in paris the cathedral was rededicated to the cult of reason and later the cult of the Supreme Being before being eventually used as a warehouse to store food and other non religious items on top of being robbed of its religious associations it was robbed of its treasures many of which were plundered or destroyed mobs even saw fit to attack the structure itself defacing many facades and lopping off the heads of 28 statues they believed to be of French king's suffice to say this was quite a low point for Notre Dame fortunately the cathedral would be saved by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801 the French emperors signed an agreement to restore the notes column to the church and used it as a setting for his royal coronation the structure thus had its status restored but its features were still in tatters such was the state of its half-ruined disrepair that Victor Hugo in part penned his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame to draw attention to its plight here's an excerpt from the book quote without a doubt the Church of notre-dame de belly is even today a majestic and sublime building however even if its beauty has been conserved as it ages it's difficult not to say it's not being Dignan but for the degradation 'he's the new rule mutilations that time and men have simultaneously subjected the venerable monument to the novel help arouse public support and in 1844 King Louie Philippe ordered the church to be restored these restorations lasted 25 years and involved a great team of architects artists and craftsmen who painstakingly studied all available historical records for guidance their efforts were a stunning success the work included restoring the damaged sculptures fixing the central portal reinstating new glass glazing a name urals to the side chapel and reconstructing the great organ to top it all off they even constructed a new more ornate central spire and added the sex st to house the church's treasures in the modern era no totem survived both world wars and would be the scene of a special Mass to celebrate the expulsion of the Nazis from Paris in 1963 and again in 1991 the cathedral would receive major cleaning campaigns and restoration programs to remove centuries of grime and soot restoring its original coloring in the past decade new renovation projects have been undertaken to further combat ongoing pollution damage unfortunately it appears that these may have inadvertently caused a fire to break out on the 15th of April 2019 just this week I unfortunately had to watch as the 856 year old neutral atom was engulfed in flame it appears that the spire along with large portions of the tin roof and it's wooden support frames have been lost but as this is an ongoing situation I'll refrain from any specific assessments of the damage for the time being as these are not fully known however what is known is that our lady once again calls out for aid please check the description for updates and look out for ways to support restoration efforts thanks for watching you

Channel: Invicta

Views: 681,524

Rating: 4.8711462 out of 5

Keywords: notre dame fire, notre dame history, history of notre dame, history of notre dame cathedral, history of notre dame cathedral documentary, history of paris documentary, history of paris, history of paris france, history of france, middle ages documentary, notre dame spire collapse, notre dame de paris, notre dame de paris documentary, invicta history, notre dame news, notre dame reconstruction

Id: VTilOMlJYes

Length: 12min 59sec (779 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2019