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The city's cathedral ranks as one of the greatest achievements of Gothic architecture. Notre Dame was begun in 1163 and completed around 1345; the massive interior can accommodate over 6000 worshippers. Although Notre Dame is known for its sublime balance, there are all sorts of minor anomalies as the French love nothing better than to mess with things. These include the differently shaped three main entrances, which have statues that were once coloured to make them more effective as Bible lessons for the hoi polloi. The interior is dominated by spectacular and enormous rose windows, and a 7800-pipe organ that was recently restored but has not been working properly since. From the base of the north tower, visitors with ramrod straight spines can climb to the top of the west façade and savour the views over many of the cathedral's most ferocious-looking gargoyles, not to mention a good part of Paris. Under the square in front of the cathedral, an archaeological crypt displays in situ the remains of structures from the Gallo-Roman and later periods.
Before the cathedral of Notre Dame lies a plaza.
Until the mid 60's, this site was a warren of buildings dating to the middle ages. It was difficult to
view the cathedral in all of its glory. Then, the buildings were torn down, during the course of which
archeologists found many remains of early life.
The Archeological Crypt of the Parvis of Notre-Dame was erected by the city of Paris in order to
house the (Gallo-Roman to 19th century) vestiges discovered during the excavation undertaken in
1965 by the "Direction des Antiquites historiques de I'Ile de France" (M. Fleury, director) and
the "Commission du Vieux Paris". It is the largest structure of this type in the world (total length
118 m., beam length 12 m).
Imbedded in the surface of the plaza are brass strips which locate the streets and buildings that
were removed.
Beneath the plaza lies the Crypt (museum). It contains remains of buildings dating back as far as
pre-Roman times.
Paris was born on the "Ile de la Cite", at the intersection of a waterway and road. The Island, which
formed a natural defensive stronghold, offered a convenient crossing point over a river that
separated the two halves of Gaul. The Seine and its tributaries provided mans of communication by
water, while the ground provided stone for building and for plaster.
The Paris region was inhabited as early as the early Paleolithic Age. During the second Iron Age,
Celtic people came to live there. The Parisii seemed to have settled the island in the middle of the
third century B.C. They minted gold coins that indicate their prosperity and artistic sense. Caesar
held an assembly in their town in the year 53 B.C. In 52, they revolted to the call of Vercingetorix.
Labienus, Caesar's lieutenant, crushed them.
The Romans established a new town on the hills of the Left Bank. The Germanic invasions at the
end of the third century A.D. ravaged the Gallo-Roman city. A defensive stronghold was then built
on the Ile de la Cite, which was naturally protected by the river as well.
The Crypt contains several parts of the foundations of the surrounding wall, which was built of large
stones taken from the damaged or destroyed monuments of the Left Bank city.
