Nôtre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) is a Roman Catholic cathedral of the French Gothic architectural style situated on the Île de la Cité (City Island) in the very centre of Paris.
Construction began in 1163 and was completed in 1345. The cathedral measures 127 meters long by 48 meters wide and the main nave is 43 meters high under the main roof structure which is constructed entirely of wood. The wooden roof frame required more than 1300 trees and each roof beam was fashioned from one tree.
The fire which partially destroyed the Cathedral on April 15th is a disaster of immense proportions however we have chosen to focus on a couple of positive after-aspects of the devastation.
Miraculously the Cathedral’s three Rose Windows were not destroyed by the fire.
South Rose Window (19m dia)
North Rose Window (12.9m dia)
West Rose Window (10m dia)
Equally miraculously, the Cathedral's 200,000 resident Bees survived.
The bees were living in hives on a roof section of the cathedral approximately 30m below the main roof on the south side since 2013 were initially thought to have perished in the blaze. Fortunately the Cathedral's beekeeper, Nicolas Géant has confirmed that the bees survived and are alive and buzzing.
