Friday, September 25, 2009

Gema Paulina Fernández Castillo


Mystical Notre Dame Cathedralimpressive marvel of sacred geometry and medieval architecture


After I visited “a lot” of web sites, I could deduce many things about this medieval architecture: “Notre Dame Cathedral”. I want to invite you to visit all the web sites I posted here. I hope you enjoy this presentation.
- These are different perspectives of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris:


1.2





1.1






1.4









- The people in this picture are looking at Notre Dame Cathedral from the Seine River.
- Construction of Notre Dame began in 1163 and was finished in 1345.










Image 1.6
http://www.visitingdc.com/paris/notre-dame-picture.asp
- This gargoyle is looking at Paris from the top of Notre Dame.


· Architecture Information:
When I looked the architecture of this Cathedral I could appreciate all the shapes, colors and the Catholic style. The colors are cold (sky blue, white, etc.), we can see round windows and long columns, and the elegant structure.
The architecture of Notre Dame is very interesting and beautiful; we can see a lot of elements, these are the most representative of them:
- Buttress: They are a masonry structure that typically consists of a straight inclined bar carried on an arch and a solid pier or buttress against which it abuts and that receives the thrust of a roof or vault.








- Arch: A curved structural member spanning an opening or recess. The wedge shaped elements that make up an arch keep one another in place and transform the vertical pressure of the structure above into lateral pressure.






- Composite pier: A type of pier that is composed not of a single member but has shafts, half-columns, or pilaster strips attached to it.









· History information:
This Cathedral is a really old structure, but it still has the beauty to make you feel different emotions.
“This is Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris, on the Île de la Cité, an island in the Seine River that is the original birthplace of Paris. The name is pronounced /katedʁal də nɔtʁ̩ dam də paʁi/ (Cathedral de Notre-Dame de Paris), and it means “Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris”—“our lady” in this case being the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus in Christianity. The cathedral is almost nine hundred years old. This is the cathedral that played a key role in Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The bells are still rung several times daily, by human beings.
Like all churches built prior to the formal separation of the Roman Catholic Church and the French Republic, this edifice is now public property; daily services are still held within. The state is responsible for the building itself, along with major maintenance, and it runs the tours of the towers; but the church is given responsibility for the interior. You can visit the interior, climb the towers to see the gargoyles, or see a small collection of art objects and relics in a tiny museum; a crypt beneath the cathedral and the plaza in front of it, along with its associated archaeological excavations, can also be visited. Notre-Dame Cathedral is a very well-known landmark, and tourists crowd around and within it all day long, every day. It is called Our Lady of Paris to distinguish it from the many other variations of Our Lady throughout Paris and France.
The rose windows (the southern rose window is visible in the photo) are the only original stained-glass windows left in the cathedral (most others were replaced several centuries ago with “new” stained glass), were removed during the Second World War and reinstalled after the war ended.” (http://www.atkielski.com/PhotoGallery/Paris/NotreDame/NotreDameSmall.html)



Opinion:
“Medieval architecture”, “Notre Dame Cathedral”, “Old Church”…you can call this structure like you want…but I would call it “Magnificence”.
I have never had the pleasure to go to Paris and know this place, but when I visited some web sites and watched some images, I felt something deep.
I felt imposing in front of this wonderful Cathedral. I would describe this place like something: splendid, magnificent, marvelous…
For me…it represents celestial power and royalty. The faith, hope and purity are present in our catholic life. And we can appreciate the catholic style in this Cathedral.
I would like to have the chance to visit this wonderful place some day. I don´t know how would I react, but I am sure that I will enjoy it a lot.
The beautiful scene, the cold landscape…everything is perfect. The bright lights inside and outside give Notre Dame a warm and elegant appearance.
I love architecture, and some day I will be able to make magnificent artworks. I just want to make something clear: “We can find art everywhere…we just have to look beyond…”




Bibliography:
Notre Dame Cathedral. Consulted on September 24th, 2009. Available at:
http://www.visitingdc.com/paris/notre-dame-cathedral-paris.asp
Notre Dame Cathedral. Consulted on September 24th, 2009. Available at:
http://wallpapers.bpix.org/es_63__Notre-Dame_de_Paris_Cathedral,_Paris,_France.html
Notre Dame Cathedral. Consulted on September 24th, 2009. Available at:
http://www.atkielski.com/PhotoGallery/Paris/NotreDame/NotreDameSmall.html
Notre Dame Cathedral. Consulted on September 24th, 2009. Available at:
http://www.destination360.com/europe/france/images/s/france-notre-dame-cathedral.jpg
Buttress. Consulted on September 24th, 2009. Available at:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buttress
Notre Dame Cathedral. Consulted on September 24th, 2009. Available at:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMh8uImMMcCDm1kOp0WA-GxpMR4xQO2RskPOFAxIh1kFOY6rg2xIfMr9ACqFoZqdrM5-siQ57EB4EBKqqDIKdyiZinfOuOz_cEC6s4eZMhIgyp8b2CdSEJGBPnBMi6mYrXn2YcSBy7H6AN/s400/notre-dame-cathedral-night.jpg
Notre Dame Cathedral. Consulted on September 24th, 2009. Available at:
http://www.kinsilclose.com/
Notre Dame Cathedral. Consulted on September 24th, 2009. Available at:
http://www.kinsilclose.com/imageLibrary/Inside-Notre-Dame-Cathedral.jpg

2 comments:

  1. oh mon Dieu j'adore la norte dame de paris!

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks for the photos. They were helpful for my projsect

    ReplyDelete