FAMOUS VISITORS TO NOTRE-DAME
Statue of Joan of Arc inside Notre-Dame
1. Joan of Arc
The patriot Jeanne d’Arc (1412–31), who defended France against the invading English, had a posthumous trial here in 1455, despite having been burned at the stake 24 years earlier. She was found to be innocent of heresy.
2. François II and Mary Stuart
Mary Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots; 1542–87) had been raised in France and married the Dauphin in 1558. He ascended the throne as François II in 1559 and the king and queen were crowned in Notre-Dame.
3. Napoleon
The coronation of Napoleon (1769–1821) in Notre-Dame in 1804 saw the eager general seize the crown from Pope Pius VII and crown himself emperor and his wife, Josephine, empress.
4. Josephine
Josephine’s (1763–1814) reign as Empress of France lasted only five years; Napoleon divorced her in 1809.
5. Pope Pius VII
In 1809 Pope Pius VII (1742– 1823), who oversaw Napoleon’s Notre-Dame coronation, was taken captive when the emperor declared the Papal States to be part of France. The pope was imprisoned at Fontainebleau, 30 miles (50 km) south of Paris.
6. Philip the Fair
In 1302 the first States General parliament was formally opened at Notre-Dame by Philip IV (1268–1314), otherwise known as Philip the Fair. He greatly increased the governing power of the French royalty.
7. Henry VI of England
Henry VI (1421–71) became King of England at the age of one. Like his father, Henry V, he also claimed France and was crowned in Notre-Dame in 1430.
8. Marguerite of Valois
In August 1572, Marguerite (1553–1589), sister of Charles IX, stood in the Notre-Dame chancel during her marriage to the Protestant Henri of Navarre (1553–1610), while he stood alone by the door.
9. Henri of Navarre
As a Protestant Huguenot, Henri’s marriage to the Catholic Marguerite resulted in uprising and many massacres. In 1589, he became Henri IV, the first Bourbon king of France, and converted to Catholicism, stating that “Paris is well worth a Mass.”
10. Charles de Gaulle
On August 26, 1944, Charles de Gaulle entered Paris and attended a Magnificat service to celebrate the liberation of Paris, despite the fact that hostile snipers were still at large outside the cathedral.
Charles de Gaulle visits Notre-Dame
SAVING NOTRE-DAME
Paris’s great cathedral has had a history of deterioration and restoration. When Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) was published in 1831, the cathedral was in a state of decay. Even for the crowning of Napoleon in 1804, the crumbling setting had to be disguised with ornamentation. During the Revolution, the cathedral was sold to a scrap dealer, though fortunately not demolished. Hugo was intent on saving France’s spiritual heart and helped mount a campaign to restore Notre-Dame before it was too late; Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) was the chosen architect. Repairs began again in 2019 before the cathedral was damaged by fire. Within 24 hours of the blaze, President Macron vowed to rebuild Notre-Dame and more than $800m was raised. At the same time, sales of Hugo’s iconic novel rocketed, prompting French booksellers to ask for profits from renewed sales to be directed toward the restoration.
Novelist Victor Hugo
TOP 10 EVENTS IN NOTRE-DAME HISTORY
1. Construction of the cathedral begins (1163)
2. St. Louis places the Crown of Thorns here temporarily (1239)
3. Construction is completed (1334)
4. Retrial of Joan of Arc (1455)
5. Revolutionaries loot the cathedral and make it a Temple of Reason (1789)
6. Crowning of Emperor Napoleon (1804)
7. Restoration work is completed (1864)
8. Mass for the Liberation of Paris (1944)
9. New bells with a medieval tone mark the 850th anniversary (2013)
10. Fire destroys the spire and roof (2019)
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Hugo’s 1831 novel, tells the story of Quasimodo, a hunchbacked bell-ringer at Notre-Dame, who falls in love with gypsy girl Esmeralda.
