Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris meaning ‘Our Lady of France’ is still standing on Paris Island in Paris, France today (Notre Dame Cathedral Facts). Its construction began in 1136 under Pope Alexander III and finally concluded after 300 years. The first builder of the cathedral is anonymous but other builders like Jean de Chelles and Pierre de Montreuil became quite famous (Building History). The cathedral is in prime condition as the Gothic Style is prominent in its architectural design. One can view the cathedral on www.notredamedeparis.fr/spip.php?rubrique2 where one can virtually explore the different areas of Notre Dame. Notre Dame is open 365 days of the year from 8:00 am to 6:45 pm (7:15 on Saturdays and Sundays) and is available for both mass and tours (Hours). The scale of the cathedral is very large as it “is 130 meters long, 48 meters wide, and 35 meters high.” The famous stained-glass rose windows have a “diameter of 10 meters and the pillars have a diameter of 5 meters’ (Notre Dame Cathedral Facts). The large scale of Notre Dame provides the cathedral with the theme that God is bigger and more powerful than humans.…show more content… One of the most famous aspects of Notre Dame is the large stained glass windows which is one popular Gothic design. These windows provide beautiful, colored light to the inside of the cathedral while also providing biblical scenes that can be viewed from both the inside and outside of the cathedral. Another popular Gothic tradition is the use of sculptures in the cathedral. Notre Dame houses many decorative sculptures in the inside of the cathedral that represents biblical figures. Also popular are the gargoyle statues on the outside of Notre Dame. The gargoyles were created to act as water spouts. Rain water on the cathedral runs off of the building through the mouth of the gargoyles in order to reduce the erosion of the stone on the