When the massive fire engulfed the monument, one of the biggest losses was the beamed roof known as the “forest,” the wood which came from trees cut down between 1160 and 1170, making it one of the oldest parts of the structure.
The scary-looking guardian-demons outside Notre Dame including a winged, horned creature cupping his head in his hands are relatively recent additions to the decades-old structure. Both gargoyles and chimaeras mostly survived the 2019 blaze.
During the French Revolution, the cathedral was plundered and seized as public property. Therefore, between the 1790s and before Napoleon crowned himself emperor there in 1804, the cathedral was used for several purposes including storing barrels of wine for the Revolutionary Army.
Despite its historic significance, it was Victor Hugo’s 1831 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame that played a pivotal role in saving its namesake, as the hugely popular novel triggered an outpouring of emotion among Parisians over the state of the cathedral’s disrepair, leading to a major restoration.
Notre Dame Cathedral wasn’t always the Catholic icon it is today and is believed to have been built on the ruins of a once pagan city, the Gallo-Roman city of Lutetia. The historic monument also started as a temple to Jupiter before being transformed into a Romanesque church.
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