Notre-Dame de Paris (for "Our Lady of Paris"), also known as Notre-Dame Cathedral or simply Notre-Dame, is an 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 Archbishop 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.
Thank you Marie for this nice card.
