Notre Dame
Like most cathedrals, Notre Dame was built on a site already held sacred by pre-Christian peoples. The Romans, after wresting the island from the Parisii in 52 BCE., had dedicated a temple to Jupiter there.
"Our Lady." The Notre Dame cathedral on the Ile de la Cité in Paris was commissioned by Bishop de Sully in 1159. Construction began in 1163 and would continue for the next 200 years, creating one of the architectural masterpieces of the world, and a witness to many of the great events in French history. Much of the building we see today is part of the massive resotration carried out by Viollet le Duc in the mid 19th century; a great deal was destroyed during the Revolution, when the cathedral was ransacked and renamed the Temple of Reason.
Notre Dame
Like most cathedrals, Notre Dame was built on a site already held sacred by pre-Christian peoples. The Romans, after wresting the island from the Parisii in 52 BCE., had dedicated a temple to Jupiter there.