Notre-Dame de Paris (IPA: [nɔtʁə dam də paʁi];
French for "Our Lady of Paris"), also known as Notre-Dame
Cathedral or simply Notre-Dame, is a historic Catholic cathedral on
the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris,
France. The cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of
French Gothic architecture and among the largest and most well-known church
buildings in the world. The naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are
in contrast with earlier Romanesque architecture.
As the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame
is the parish that contains the cathedra, or official chair, of the archbishop
of Paris, currently Cardinal André Vingt-Trois. The cathedral treasury is
notable for its reliquary which houses some of Catholicism's most important
first-class relics including the purported Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the
True Cross, and one of the Holy Nails.
In the 1790s, Notre-Dame suffered desecration during the
radical phase of the French Revolution when much of its religious imagery was
damaged or destroyed. An extensive restoration supervised by Eugène
Viollet-le-Duc began in 1845. A project of further restoration and maintenance
began in 1991.
