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Famous Visitors to Notre-Dame

  1. Joan of Arc

    The French patriot Jeanne d’Arc (1412–31), who defended her country against the invading English, had a posthumous trial here in 1455, despite having been burnt at the stake 24 years earlier. At the re-trial she was found to be innocent of heresy.

    Joan of Arc
  2. François II and Mary Stuart

    Mary Stuart (1542–87) (Mary Queen of Scots) 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.

    Napoleon
  4. Josephine

    Josephine’s (1763–1814) reign as Empress of France lasted only five years; Napoleon divorced her in 1809.

    Empress Josephine
  5. Pope Pius VII

    In 1809 Pope Pius VII (1742– 1823), who oversaw the Notre-Dame coronation, was taken captive when the emperor declared the Papal States to be part of France. The pope was imprisoned at Fontainebleau, 50 km (30 miles) 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 massacres. In 1589 he became Henri IV, the first Bourbon king of France, and converted to Catholicism, declaring that “Paris is well worth a mass”.

  10. Charles de Gaulle

    On 26 August 1944, Charles de Gaulle entered Paris and attended a Te Deum service to celebrate the liberation of Paris, despite the fact that hostile snipers were still at large both inside and outside the cathedral.

The Man Who Saved Notre-Dame

By 1831, when Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) was published, the cathedral was in a sorry state of decay. Even for the crowning of Emperor Napoleon in 1804, the setting for such ceremonious state occasions was crumbling and had to be disguised with wall hangings and ornamentation. During the Revolution, the cathedral was even sold to a scrap dealer, but was never actually demolished. Hugo was determined to save the country’s spiritual heart and helped mount a successful campaign to restore Notre-Dame before it was too late; the man chosen to design and oversee the restoration was Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879). Paris-born, Viollet-le-Duc had already proved his skill in restoration work, as evidenced by the cathedrals in Amiens and Laon, and on the spectacular walled city of Carcassone in southern France. Work began in 1841 and continued for 23 years until the building was finished more or less as we see it today. Viollet-le-Duc later went on to restore Sainte-Chapelle nearby.

Novelist Victor Hugo Top 10 Events in Notre-Dame History
  1. Construction on the cathedral begins (1163)

  2. St Louis places the Crown of Thorns here temporarily (1239)

  3. Construction is completed (1334)

  4. Re-trial of Joan of Arc (1455)

  5. Crowning of Emperor Napoleon (1804)

  6. Publication of Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831)

  7. Completion of 23-year restoration programme (1864)

  8. Assassination attempt on Charles de Gaulle (1944)

  9. De Gaulle’s Requiem Mass is held (1970)

  10. Visit of Pope John Paul II (1980)

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