Surely, there is no person in the world who has never heard of Notre Dame Cathedral. Glorified by writers, poets and composers, Notre-Dame de Paris rises above the city, attracting to itself not only with its architecture, but also with numerous legends that sweep around it. Built on the site of a pagan sanctuary, the Cathedral is an excellent example of the Gothic style in architecture so popular in France …
The construction of the Cathedral, which began in 1163, lasted 170 years. And subsequently, the temple, located in the very heart of Paris, which was so restless at all times, was rebuilt and restored several times.
“A huge stone symphony, a colossal creation of both man and people … A wonderful result of the unification of all the forces of an entire era, where every stone sprinkles the fantasy of a worker, guided by the artist's genius, taking hundreds of forms …”, - wrote the famous French writer Victor Hugo about Notre Dame Cathedral.
He also calls this stone structure "the creation of God, from whom it seemed to borrow its dual character: diversity and eternity."
What is so special about this cathedral? The heart of Paris Notre Dame de Paris (this is its French name) is located in the western part of the Isle of Cité, near the Louvre. Its total height is 35 meters, length - 130 meters, width - 48 meters, bell towers height - 69 meters. The building can easily accommodate 9 thousand people.
The cathedral consists of three tiers, one above the other. One of its main attractions is the Gallery of the Kings, whose statues represent the rulers of Ancient Judea.
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The ominous figures of chimeras are mockingly looking at tourists and pilgrims, stained-glass windows are shining with colored glass. In addition, the cathedral contains one of the greatest Christian relics - the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ, bought by King Louis the Holy from the Byzantine emperor in 1238.
Notre Dame was erected on the site of St. Stephen's Basilica - the first Christian church in Paris, and that, in turn, was built on the site of the Temple of Jupiter, once erected by the ancient Gauls and Romans.
In 1711, workers tasked with carving a tomb into the wall found half a dozen stone bas-reliefs depicting ancient gods with Latin texts engraved on them. Researchers suggest that the bas-reliefs once adorned the altar of Jupiter. It is curious that throughout Europe, temples were often built on the site of pagan sanctuaries.
Apparently, people felt the special aura of these places, and she attracted them to her. In 1163, Pope Alexander III blessed the Parisian archbishop Maurice de Sully for the construction of the cathedral. By that time, the two main Christian churches in Paris were practically destroyed and could not be rebuilt.
One of the bishops, who later went down in history under the name of St. Bernard, sharply opposed the construction. He said that the work would be too expensive for the treasury, while famine reigns in the country. However, Pope Alexander III did not listen to him and, as the legend says, he himself laid the foundation stone of the future cathedral.
The grandiose temple was under construction for almost two centuries. The greatest contribution to its construction was made by two architects - Jean de Chelles (who worked from 1250 to 1265) and the Gothic genius Pierre de Montreuil, who gave the structure its final look. The latter died in 1267.
By 1250, the construction was actually completed, by 1315 the craftsmen completed the interior decoration, and in 1345 the building, in modern terms, was put into operation.
It is here that significant events for the whole country will now take place: coronations, monarchs, weddings and funeral services for the great French.
The first "mass event" took place here in 1302. It was the Assembly of the States General - that was the name of the French parliament then.
Many celebrities have left their mark on the history of Notre Dame.
So, on one of the walls, the words of a prayer were knocked out by a student who would soon become one of the most "iconic" poets of France - Francois Villon. Prince Charles of Orleans, who languished in English captivity, dedicated his sonnets to Notre Dame Cathedral. After the coronation in Reims, King Charles VII served a thanksgiving service here.
Speaking of weddings, one cannot but recall the unusual wedding ceremony on August 18, 1572, when Margaret of Valois and Henry of Navarre got married. Henry was a Huguenot and he was not allowed into the cathedral, he defended all the action outside the doors, while the bride, being inside, memorized the details, so that later she could tell her husband in all colors.
After 6 days, the guests from the side of the husband (along with hundreds of other Huguenots) were cut by the co-religionists of their wives during an event later called "St. Bartholomew's Night." And after a couple of decades, Henry, having said: "Paris is worth the Mass," he converted to Catholicism and became the king of France.
On December 2, 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor of the French here, and later prayers were served, thanks to the Lord, for his victories at Austerlitz (this is where the high, endless sky is), Smolensk … Borodin (the French consider Borodino their victory, which is not far from the truth, because the Russians continued to retreat) …
There is an amazing legend about the gate of Notre Dame. They are adorned with an intricate applied wrought iron pattern in the form of intertwining openwork leaves and figured iron locks.
It is said that a blacksmith named Biscorne was entrusted with forging the gate. Fearing not to cope with the work, the blacksmith called for the help of the devil himself. This is how beauty appeared to the world that human hands cannot create.
However, when the locks were cut into the gate, it turned out that they could not be opened. This was done only after the iron was sprinkled with holy water. As for Biscorne, he, tormented by the memories of the deal with the devil, grew gloomier and gloomier day by day. Finally, an unknown ailment brought him to the grave …
The crown of thorns of Jesus Christ
Here, in the treasury, is the Crown of Thorns of Jesus Christ, who first made his way from Jerusalem to Constantinople, then the Crusaders who seized Byzantium laid a crown for the Byzantines (o tempora, o mores …), and after it was bought by Louis IX, who brought the relic to Notre- Dame de Paris on August 18, 1239 barefoot as a sign of humility.
Until 1063, the Crown of Thorns was kept on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. In 1063 he was transported to the palace of the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople. In 1204, the sacred relic was seized by the Western European knights-crusaders who broke into Constantinople and plundered the Christian city.
Before that, for a thousand years, the conqueror's foot had not stepped on the stones of the streets of Constantinople.
Under the blows of the Crusaders, the Byzantine Empire fell apart into several parts. Constantinople found itself under the rule of a dynasty of some provincial princelings who insatiably plundered the remnants of the great heritage they had inherited, but still constantly in need of money.
One of them - Baldwin II, in order to get out of debt, began to sell the sacred relics of Christianity. As a result, the Crown of Thorns went to the French king Louis IX.
In 1239, the shrine was brought to Paris. King Louis ordered to place the crown in a specially built chapel, in which he was located until the era of the French Revolution, when crowds of revolutionary-minded citizens, intoxicated with "freedom, equality and brotherhood", smashed the chapel to pieces. However, the Crown of Thorns was saved and in 1809 it was transferred for safekeeping to Notre Dame Cathedral, in which it has remained for almost two centuries.
This photo shows a part of the Holy Cross, on which the Savior and the Holy Nail were crucified, one of four with which Roman soldiers nailed him
Holy Nail
Another curious detail - in Notre Dame there is a nail from the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. The second nail is in the cathedral of the city of Carpentras. Two more are kept in Italy. Nails have long been the subject of debate among historians: three or four? In fact, there are 30 of them in the world, so the question of authenticity is also relevant …
Milestones in history
At the end of the 17th century, during the reign of King Louis XIV, the cathedral fell on hard times: the tombs and colored stained glass windows were destroyed. And during the French Revolution, the Jacobin Convention even planned to wipe the building off the face of the earth as a "stronghold of obscurantism."
In the end, the revolutionary government announced that if the Parisians wanted to keep Notre Dame, they must raise a large sum of money "for the needs of the revolution." The money was collected, and the long-suffering cathedral turned into the "Temple of Reason", a kind of monument to the revolution.
In July 1793, the Convention nevertheless took punitive measures. By order of the dictator Robespierre, the heads of the statues of the Jewish kings were blown off - for some reason the Jacobins confused them with the French monarchs. The bells were poured into cannons "for the world revolution," and the lead coffins in which the clergy were buried were used for bullets and buckshot.
A wine warehouse was set up in the temple. After the coup, designed to restore normal, not "revolutionary" law and order in France, the cathedral was returned to the bosom of the church, but it was in a very deplorable state.
By the way, in 1978, in the basements of the French Bank for Foreign Trade, fragments of destroyed statues were found, including the heads of the kings. Apparently, during the revolution, someone still managed to take them out and hide them. Now you can admire them in the Cluny Museum.
The publication in 1831 of Victor Hugo's novel Notre Dame de Paris sparked a new wave of interest in Notre Dame as a national treasure. In 1832, the Chamber of Deputies established a commission for the restoration of the cathedral. The project was led by the young architect Viollet le Duc.
The work lasted from 1841 to 1864. Restorers have cast anew the statues of the kings, a metal spire with a lace pattern. And one of the sculptures depicting the Apostle Thomas was given the features of the architect le Duc. On his initiative, statues of chimeras were erected on the upper platform of the cathedral, at the foot of the towers. In addition, the buildings adjacent to the temple were demolished. This is how the square in front of the cathedral was formed in its present form.
Victor Hugo's magic cipher, which has glorified Notre Dame for centuries, called it "the most satisfactory short guide to the occult." There have long been legends that the recipe of the philosopher's stone is hidden in the stone patterns and ornaments of the building …
The alchemist Fulcanelli writes in his book "The Mysteries of the Cathedrals": "If, pushed by curiosity or just for the sake of an idle walk on a fine summer day, you climb the winding stairs leading to the upper floors of the cathedral, then take a leisurely walk along the narrow passage of the second-tier gallery. When you reach the corner formed by the column of the northern vault, you will see in the middle of the line of chimeras an amazing bas-relief of an old man carved out of stone. He is the Alchemist of Notre Dame."
In the late Middle Ages, Notre Dame was indeed a place of alchemical gatherings. The meetings took place at the right entrance (St. Anna's door). Traditionally, the senior alchemist put on a Phrygian cap and showed his younger companion the way to the statue of the Alchemist on the second-tier gallery. What was the real name of the Alchemist - we do not know. But, according to legend, he still managed to discover the secret of the philosopher's stone.
But what does our cathedral have to do with magical teachings? It's a long story.
Architecture has traditionally been associated with hermeneutics, each of its elements - with one or another occult symbol. Precisely occult, not religious. Along with the Christian Church, there were secret societies of "heretics". There were "Freemasons" - Freemasons, there was a "Society of carpenters - masters of rafters". They all preached certain esoteric ideas and tried to "encrypt" them in the "stone book" of Notre Dame.
So, if you pay attention to the allegedly religious scenes of stained glass windows, you can find that they are far from the Christian tradition.
On the central one - Rose, the Virgin Mary is dressed in a red cloak, from under which a green robe can be seen, while traditionally she should be dressed in blue. At the same time, among the Masons, the room in the temple, which serves for initiation rituals to the fifteenth degree - "Knight of the East and the Sword" - is divided into red and green halves …
Accident? The Russian mystic philosopher P. D. Uspensky (1878-1947), a student of the famous G. Gurdjieff, in his book "New Model of the Universe" writes: "In each so-called" school of masons ", where all the sciences necessary for an architect were taught, there was and the “inner school”, where the true meaning of religious allegories and symbols was explained, where esoteric philosophy was studied, or the science of the relationship between God, man and the universe, ie. magic; but for the mere thought of this, people were sent to the rack and burned at the stake.
Chimeras and other figures of Notre Dame cathedral convey to us the psychological ideas of its builders, mainly the idea of the complex nature of the soul.
These figures represent the soul of Notre Dame, its various “I”: pensive, melancholic, observing, mocking, malicious, immersed in oneself, devouring something, peering intently into the distance invisible to us - as, for example, a woman does in the headdress of a nun, which is visible above the capitals of the columns of a small turret, high on the south side of the cathedral.
Chimeras and all the figures of Notre Dame have an amazing property: you cannot draw, write or photograph around them - next to them people seem to be dead, expressionless stone statues."
According to the researchers, the "stone tablets" of Notre Dame also encrypt various knowledge accumulated by mankind: in mathematics, biology, astronomy, astrology …
Thus, the "Gallery of the Kings" consists of 28 sculptures, while, according to biblical myths, there were only 18 or 19 rulers in Judea. Where did the extra ones come from? Perhaps this is nothing more than an astronomical code: the number of figures corresponds to the number of days in the lunar month.
Zodiac signs are inscribed above the entrance and on the left side of the “door of the Virgin Mary”. The cycle begins not with the sign of Aries, in accordance with the Western astrological tradition, but with the sign of Pisces, which corresponds to the traditions of Indian astrology. In Hinduism, Pisces is a symbol of the connection of the individual soul with the Soul of the world, among the ancient Greek Orphicans it is the sign of the goddess Aphrodite, among the Romans - Venus, and among the Egyptians - Isis.
"Point zero" However, "stone ciphers" are not the only secret of Notre Dame de Paris. In front of the entrance grating, a round bronze plaque with the inscription: "zero kilometer" is built into the paving stones. From here distances to any point in France are calculated. But there is a version that this is not just a conventional starting point, but a “zero point” from which the city began to be built.
It is here that the sacred energy center of Paris is located. According to legend, if you stand on the sign and make a wish, it will certainly come true …
The towers of Notre Dame and the gallery between them offer stunning views of the city. If from a bird's eye view (say, from the Eiffel Tower) you cannot really see anything, just take a look at the vague panorama of the metropolis, then from here you can clearly see houses, streets, even people. It seems that the height of the cathedral is specially designed for those who dream of seeing everything properly.
It is enough just to go upstairs and you will find yourself in the very heart of Paris.
Where the shadows of the immortal heroes of Hugo - the ugly but magnanimous hunchback Quasimodo, the beautiful dancer Esmeralda, the sinister Claude Frollo - roam, as if in a vicious circle …
And for a moment it will seem to you that you are about to approach an elusive solution to the mystery of this Gothic building …
Compilation of material - FOX. The article uses materials from Maria Podoletskaya