Friday, April 19, 2019

One Of The Most Beautiful Churches/Cathedrals, We Had Visited Last Year - Notre Dame De Paris (Our Lady Of Paris)


Coming back to write after a long break.  But the news about the spiral tower of Notre Dame burning, is compelling me to write...last year's Europe tour changed my views about many things.

We had the opportunity to visit many cathedrals in Rome, Venice, Paris etc. this time.

This cathedral, Notre Dame, was built around 1260 AD by Bishop Maurice de Sully.  Read more about this place here.

Very interesting information was that the great Napoleon Bonaparte's coronation took place here on 2nd Dec. 1804.  You can see a painting of the coronation here.

Now, to some photographs I had taken there, at the Notre Dame cathedral.

I took this snap as soon as we reached this place.  Huge building!
Photographed from a different angle. The two towers are sixty-nine meters high and were the tallest structures in Paris until the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889.
The interior...the chapel was stunning!
Many beautiful sculptures were there on the left and right sides, depicting the stories from Christianity
The feeling inside the cathedral was overwhelming. Though we are used to praying in our Hindu temples, which are full of good architecture, mostly in stone, this place gave this feeling, well, maybe because it was an ancient building.  Peacefulness was there. The whole area was beautiful with lot of woodwork.  This is the reason I felt sad when I read about the major fire which happened just a few days back. Thank god, since it was under restoration now, many good sculptures and other artifacts were already shifted to other places.  I remember gaping at the spire but thought I won't be able to take a good picture of that, so, I don't have my photograph of the 90 meter tall spire which collapsed in the fire.  They say the renovation work is also a reason for the fire.  Might be electrical short circuit in some lift/elevator.

Anyway, read that the spire built by a 30 year old architect (The spire and the statues trace their roots to the mid-19th century work of a bold visionary who, at the age of 30, was commissioned to restore the cathedral and replace an old spire after years of neglect.) Got this information from the Washington post which also has got some videos of the fire (link). Feel very sad. 

This picture shows the real beauty, elegance of the spire before the fire: 

Picture courtesy: Shine.cn

The famous instrument, pipe organ is also saved, it seems.  I could not go up and see it closely since they played the instrument at a particular time.

The organ pipes at Notre Dame Cathedral
This link has got some good videos played with this organ.
About this organ: 

One of the earliest organs at Notre-Dame, built in 1403 by Friedrich Schambantz, was replaced between 1730 and 1738 by Francois Thierry. During the restoration of the cathedral by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, Aristide Cavaille-Coll built a new organ, using pipe work from the former instruments. The organ was dedicated in 1868.

Many artifacts were saved before the fire spread to other parts of the cathedral. Because of the ongoing renovation, the copper statues that were normally on the now collapsed spire had been removed from the building a week prior.

Well, funds are pouring from all over the world to renovate the monument to its earlier glory.  Hope for the best!

12 comments :

SG said...

Welcome back after a long time. We missed you. Thanks for this blog post. It is very sad what happened to Notre Dame Cathedral. I still remember our visit there.

ashok said...

Very sad news...we had studied it in detail in our Architecture course. Hope to see it restored soon...

Sandhya said...

SG: So happy to read your comment, SG! Never expected to see comments so soon when I wrote after a very long time. Thanks for remembering me! I will never forget our visit to this Cathedral and the accident has etched this in my mind more. It will be the same as before, in a couple of years, I am sure.

ASHOK: Thanks for the comment...for remembering me:) Yes, it is a beautiful structure. Give them a couple of years and it will be back in its full glory.

KParthasarathi said...

The skyline of Paris is no more the same with the collapse of the tall spire standing majestically across the sky.I read fire alarms did not alert promptly.The saving grace as you have pointed out is that many valuable artifacts have been removed to safe place before restoration.It is heartening to note the government’s resolve to restore it in full in two years. Thanks for the informative post along with pictures

Sandhya said...

K.PARTHASARATHY: The link I have posted says the alarm went off at 6 pm and again a few mts. later. They couldn't locate the place. Problem might have been in an elevator. I think this is the latest news: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/briefing/mueller-report-notre-dame-royal-baby.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes Anyway, I am sure they will rebuild and bring it back to the ancient glory again.

Thank you, KP for encouraging me to write!

Destination Infinity said...

A tall Church with beautiful interiors, alright! Ya, it's good that at least some of the monuments were saved due to its shifting. These incidents remind us how quickly fire can spread and how powerful nature is. Hope they'll be able to restore it to its past glory.

Destination Infinity

Jeevan said...

Sorry for the late attendance… looks the fire had destroyed a spectacular aspect of the cathedral but glad to know that many artifacts are preserved before fire broke off. Beautiful capture from you trip to same and the interior is fascinating in candle lights!

Btw. Welcome back
Hope you doing as well :)

Sandhya said...

DESTINATION INFINITY: Until we went on the Europe tour last June, I never knew that churches can be so beautiful and artistic. Esp. their glass paintings are fantastic. You have to visit these places once in your lifetime, Rajesh! This place will come back like before. Thanks for the comment...Never expected any comment here since the blog was nearly dead. Thank you!


JEEVAN: No, I should thank you for commenting here! This blog has become near non-existent now. Must try to revive it!

The ambience was very good inside the church, Jeevan. Beautiful as well as peaceful. WE should not connect religion with these places.

Onkar said...

The destruction is sad. Good you could see the place in time.

Sandhya said...

ONKAR: Sorry, for the late acknowledgement, Onkar! Yes, I was lucky in that way! Thanks for the comment!

rudraprayaga said...

Beautiful place indeed. Thank you for this information.

Sandhya said...

RUDRAPRAYAGA: Thank you, Rudraprayaga, for remembering me and my blog! Until I saw these churches/cathedrals, I never knew about their architecture/paintings etc. Memorable trip for us.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Labels

Agra ( 3 ) ants ( 1 ) Arya Samaj wedding ( 1 ) Aurangabad ( 1 ) awards ( 3 ) Badami cave temples ( 4 ) balika vadhu ( 4 ) Bhimsen Joshi ( 1 ) birds and butterflies ( 28 ) Book Review ( 2 ) Books ( 5 ) Chennairain ( 1 ) children ( 2 ) Churches ( 1 ) Chutney ( 1 ) Cinderella Man ( 1 ) cinema ( 15 ) common wealth games ( 1 ) concerts ( 7 ) Corporation Schools ( 1 ) cricket ( 3 ) Dharamshala ( 3 ) dogs ( 5 ) Doordarshan ( 9 ) down memory lane ( 5 ) Education ( 15 ) English Movie Review ( 16 ) Environment ( 52 ) Europe tour ( 1 ) Festivals ( 20 ) Firaaq (2008) ( 1 ) Fitness ( 1 ) Forts ( 3 ) Foto Friday ( 18 ) Gafla ( 1 ) General ( 42 ) Health ( 7 ) Hindi film songs ( 3 ) Hindi Movie Review ( 25 ) Humour ( 6 ) Jagjit Singh ( 4 ) Kalakshetra ( 1 ) Kamal Haasan ( 2 ) kanjira ( 1 ) Karsh Kale ( 1 ) kaun banega superstar ( 3 ) kbc ( 2 ) Kew Gardens ( 2 ) Kittens ( 10 ) Kurnool ( 4 ) kya aap paanchvi paas se tez hain? ( 1 ) language ( 1 ) London ( 5 ) Mahabaleshwar tour ( 5 ) movie review ( 8 ) Mumbai Meri Jaan ( 1 ) music ( 58 ) my garden ( 17 ) Nature ( 19 ) New year ( 3 ) Notre Dame ( 1 ) onion ( 1 ) patriotism ( 19 ) pattadha kallu ( 1 ) People whom I admire ( 62 ) Personal experience ( 2 ) pets ( 19 ) politics ( 20 ) Portugese anchor ( 1 ) Pt.Chaurasia ( 1 ) radio ( 4 ) rantings ( 3 ) reality shows ( 2 ) recognition ( 2 ) religion ( 3 ) s ( 1 ) Sangeeth Saritha ( 5 ) saregama 1998 mega final ( 3 ) saregama 1999 finals ( 1 ) saregamapa 2010 ( 1 ) showcaves ( 1 ) Sonu Nigam ( 5 ) sound of music ( 3 ) sparrows ( 4 ) Sports ( 7 ) Srilanka tour ( 4 ) sunrise ( 6 ) superstitions ( 2 ) Tagged ( 11 ) Tamil movie Review ( 8 ) Temples ( 22 ) Tendulkar ( 3 ) The King's Speech ( 1 ) The Taj ( 1 ) thief ( 1 ) Tirupati ( 3 ) tour ( 59 ) tours ( 1 ) Travel ( 26 ) TV serial review ( 8 ) Ulagath Tamizh Semmozhi Maanaadu ( 1 ) unbelievable news ( 2 ) US tour ( 5 ) Ustaad Zakir Hussain ( 1 ) Vaalpaarai ( 3 ) vedanthangal ( 3 ) voh kaagaz ki kashti ( 75 ) wordless wednesday ( 38 ) yoga ( 2 )