Cathedral of Notre Dame .. This is what he suffered throughout history before the fire

Imran Abdullah

In the heart of Paris and in the sacred week of millions of Western Christians who live in "The Week of Pain" and while the cathedral of Notre Dame was preparing to receive visitors on Good Friday, the historic building of nearly eight centuries was swept by fire.

Notre Dame has been the peak of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages and even with the decline of religion in France in recent decades. The heart of the French Catholic Church, which is open daily for the Mass, remains a national landmark of historical value than the famous Eiffel Tower.

The last time the cathedral was badly damaged during the French Revolution was when the statues of the saints were attacked by anti-clergymen. The building survived the uprising of the Commune in 1871 and was not destroyed during the Nazi occupation, and during the two world wars it remained largely intact.

While the Catholic Church is now submerged in the heated debate over child abuse, the second Catholic cathedral was set on fire after the Vatican, coinciding with the holiest week of Western Christians.

For many centuries, the "Lady of Paris" has been considered the masterpiece of Parisian architecture and has become a tourist and religious destination for millions of tourists and worshipers who flow through its doors each year from all over the world.

The fire broke out on Monday and quickly reached its surface, destroying the windows of stained glass and interior wood before dropping the historic tower with its innovative design of the flying pillars, the huge pink windows and the sculptural motifs that distinguished it from the old Roman style. The Gothic architecture allowed the buildings to be lighter and rise to high limits .

Religious and national teacher
The ancient cathedral has become an integral part of French culture and tradition since it was introduced with the blessing of Pope Alexander III in 1163 to become the towering structure that dominates the Paris horizon. It took at least a century to complete and new touches were added in the next 500 years.

In 1558 Mary married the Queen of Scots from her French husband Francis II inside her walls, and in 1572 Henry IV of France also married her.

In 1548, at the height of religious reform, Protestant riots destroyed some of the statues they considered idolatrous.

In the course of the events of the French Revolution, they also suffered a great deal, looted many of their treasures and cut off the heads of 28 statues, against the background of the belief that they were French kings and not biblical figures, but fortunately it survived in all these events of any devastating fire.

By Napoleon's age, Notre Dame was in danger of total demolition, but the emperor's coronation ceremony took place in 1804 at a ceremony presided over by Pope Pius VII, which brought back to mind.

The cathedral of the French façade returned to the scene of Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame" in 1831. Hugo, in his romantic novel, along with his observations of damage, described a new round of restoration by Louis Philippe in the 19th century.

In addition to its long history, there is a symbolic and religious significance to its location, where it is located in the same place that saw the construction of the first Christian church in Paris on the ruins of an ancient Roman temple. Historians say that the first church on the site was built by King Childbert I in 528 and took the French Gothic character in the next building .

Symbol of history and culture
Although the church survived 850 years of war and revolution to become the second most visited site in France after the Eiffel Tower, bureaucracy seems to be the biggest threat to the dilapidated building.

Because of the critical arrangement between the Church and the State in the care of the Church, it is not entirely clear the limits of responsibility between them for the maintenance of the building.

Not only is Notre Dame a parish church, it has no regular group of worshipers who "belong" to it, but it remains the main church of the Catholic archbishop Michel Uppetit in Paris.

Every year during the Holy Week, Notre Dame reveals some Christian monuments, including the Holy Crown, which many believe is made from the thorns placed on the head of Christ. It also includes two other pieces connected to the latest events in Christ's life, according to Christian belief.

Although the percentage of Catholics in France more than two-thirds, the fire caused a public melancholy and was influential for all the population of the country, as the cathedral has long been a symbol of the French history and culture.