Notre-Dame de Paris also known as Notre-Dame Cathedral or simply
Notre-Dame, is a historic Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de
la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. The cathedral is widely
considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and
among the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world. The
naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are in contrast with earlier
Romanesque architecture.
As the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame is the parish that
contains the cathedra, or official chair, of the archbishop of Paris, currently
Cardinal André Vingt-Trois. The cathedral treasury is notable for its reliquary
which houses some of Catholicism's most important first-class relics including
the purported Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross, and one of the
Holy Nails.
In the 1790s, Notre-Dame suffered desecration during the radical phase of
the French Revolution when much of its religious imagery was damaged or
destroyed. An extensive restoration supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc began
in 1845. A project of further restoration and maintenance began in 1991.