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Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris
182 years! That's how long medieval builders took to complete this Gothic giant on Place Jean-Paul II. But here's the crazy part - Victor Hugo's 1831 novel actually saved Notre-Dame from demolition! This cathedral sits exactly where the ancient Saint-Étienne Cathedral stood before Bishop Maurice de Sully decided Paris needed something BIGGER. Those scary gargoyles? They're not just decorations - they're water spouts shooting rainwater off the building! Every single stone was floated up the Seine from quarries thirty miles away.
Did You Know?
- The Crown of Thorns, one of Christianity’s most revered relics, was brought to Notre-Dame by King Louis IX (Saint Louis) in 1239 and kept there until the Sainte-Chapelle was built—making the cathedral a major pilgrimage site and elevating its spiritual importance in medieval Europe.
- Napoleon Bonaparte famously crowned himself Emperor of the French inside Notre-Dame in 1804, with Pope Pius VII in attendance; the dramatic scene was immortalized in Jacques-Louis David’s painting 'Le Sacre de Napoléon,' now displayed at the Louvre—a rare example of a ruler crowning himself in such a grand religious setting.
- Notre-Dame’s construction took over 100 years (from 1163 to 1272), inspiring the French saying 'attendre 107 ans' ('to wait 107 years') as a symbol of patience—children can imagine how many generations of builders, artists, and families worked together to create this Gothic masterpiece.