3. "Cathedral" Notre Dame of Paris"

"Notre-Dame de Paris" is Hugo's first great novel, which was closely associated with the historical narratives of the era.

The concept of the novel dates back to 1828; It was this year that the plan of the work was dated, in which the images of the gypsy Esmeralda, the poet Gringoire and Abbot Claude Frollo, who were in love with her, were already outlined. According to this initial plan, Gringoire saves Esmeralda, thrown into an iron cage by order of the king, and goes instead to the gallows, while Frollo, having found Esmeralda in a gypsy camp, hands her over to the executioners. Later, Hugo somewhat expanded the plan of the novel. At the beginning of 1830, an entry appears in the notes in the margins of the plan - the name of Captain Phoebus de Chateaupert.

Hugo began direct work on the book at the end of July 1830, but the July Revolution interrupted his work, which he was able to resume only in September. V. Hugo began work on the novel under an agreement with the publisher Goslin. The publisher threatened to collect from the author a thousand francs for each overdue week. Every day counted, and then in the hassle of an unexpected move to a new apartment, all the notes and sketches were lost, all the prepared work was lost, and not a single line had yet been written.

Although in the early 30s the author of Notre Dame was still a supporter of the constitutional monarchy, he already had a negative attitude towards royal absolutism and the noble class, which occupied a dominant position in France in the 15th century, to which the events described in the novel relate. At the end of the restoration period, along with anti-noble ideas, Hugo also found vivid expression of his new anti-clerical beliefs. Thanks to this, the novel about the distant historical past sounded very relevant in the conditions of the time, when the fight against noble and church reaction was on the agenda in France.

The novel was finished two weeks ahead of schedule. On January 14, 1831, the last line was added. Hugo looks at the mountain of scribbled sheets of paper. This is what a bottle of ink can contain!

The first reader of the manuscript was the publisher's wife. This enlightened lady, who translated from English, found the novel extremely boring. Goslin was quick to publicize his wife’s response: “I will no longer rely on famous names, and you're about to suffer losses because of these celebrities." However, the printing of the book was not delayed. "Notre Dame Cathedral" was published on February 13, 1831

“Notre Dame de Paris” is a work that reflects the past through the prism of the views of a 19th-century humanist writer who sought to illuminate the “moral side of history” and emphasize those features of past events that are instructive for the present.

Hugo wrote his novel during the period of the rise and victory of the democratic movement, which marked the final fall of the Bourbon dynasty. It is no coincidence that the author attached exceptional importance to the figure of the artisan Jacques Copenol, representing the interests of the free city of Ghent.

The actual romantic features of the novel were manifested in the pronounced contrast of “The Cathedral”, the sharp contrast between positive and negative characters, an unexpected discrepancy between the external and internal content of human natures. However, it is a “medieval”, “archaeological” novel, where the author describes with special care the darkness of Frollo and the exotic outfit of Esmeralda. The same purpose is served by a meticulously developed vocabulary that reflects the language spoken by all layers of society, here you can also find terminology from the field of architecture, Latin, archaisms, argotisms of the crowd of the Court of Miracles, a mixture of Spanish, Italian and Latin. Hugo uses extensive comparisons, antitheses, and shows amazing ingenuity in the use of verbs. Amazing characters in extraordinary circumstances are also a sign of romanticism. The main characters - Esmeralda, Quasimodo and Claude Frollo - are the embodiment of one or another quality. Street dancer Esmeralda symbolizes moral beauty common man, handsome Phoebus - secular society, outwardly brilliant, internally empty, selfish and, as a result, heartless; the focus of dark forces is Claude Frollo, a representative of the Catholic Church. Hugo's democratic idea was embodied in Quasimodo: ugly and outcast social status, the cathedral bell ringer turns out to be the most highly moral being. This cannot be said about people occupying a high position in the social hierarchy (Louis XI himself, knights, gendarmes, riflemen - the “chain dogs” of the king. These are the moral values ​​​​established by the writer in the novel and reflected in the romantic conflict of high or low, where low is king , justice, religion, i.e. everything that belongs to the “old system”, and the high - in the guise of commoners, the author sees miracles in Esmeralda, and in Quasimodo, and in the outcasts of the Court. folk heroes novels full of moral strength and full of humanism. The people, in the author’s understanding, are not just an empty mass, they are a formidable force, the blind activity of which is the problem of the idea of ​​justice. The idea of ​​storming the Cathedral by the masses contains Hugo’s allusion to the impending storming of the Bastille in 1789, to the “hour of the people,” to the revolution.

It is very important to know the context of the creation of this novel, which began on the eve of the 1830 revolution. Hugo’s wife, who left her memories of him, wrote the following: “Great political events cannot but leave a deep mark on the sensitive soul of the poet. Hugo, who had just raised an uprising and erected barricades in the theater, now understood more clearly than ever that all manifestations of progress are closely related to each other and that, while remaining consistent, he must accept in politics what he achieved in literature." The heroism shown by the people during the “three glorious days,” as the days of the barricade battles that decided the fate of the Bourbons were then called, so captivated Hugo that he had to interrupt the work he had begun on the “Cathedral...”. “It is impossible to barricade yourself from the impressions of the outside world,” he wrote to Lamartine. “At such a moment there is no longer any art, no theater, no poetry... Politics becomes your breath.” However, Hugo soon resumed work on the novel, locking himself at home with a bottle of ink and even locking his clothes so as not to go outside. Five months later, in January 1831, as promised to the publisher, he put the finished manuscript on the table. It is no wonder that this novel, created on the crest of the revolution, captures the author’s admiration for the heroism and creative genius of the French people, the desire to find in distant history the beginnings of its future great deeds.

The day of January 6, 1482, chosen by Hugo for the initial chapters of his historical novel, gave him the opportunity to immediately immerse the reader in the atmosphere of colorful and dynamic medieval life as the romantics saw it, the reception of Flemish ambassadors on the occasion of the marriage of the French Dauphin with Margaret of Flanders, folk festivals, staged in Paris, the amusing lights on the Place de Greve, the maypole planting ceremony at the Braque Chapel, the performance of the mystery play of the medieval poet Gringoire, the clownish procession led by the Pope of Freaks, the thieves' den of the Court of Miracles, located in the remote corners of the French capital...

It was not without reason that Hugo’s contemporaries reproached him for the fact that in his “Cathedral…” there was not enough Catholicism. This is what Abbé Lamennais said, for example, although he praised Hugo for his wealth of imagination; Lamartine, who called Hugo “the Shakespeare of the novel”, and his “Cathedral…” - “a colossal work”, “an epic of the Middle Ages”, wrote to him with some surprise that in his temple “there is everything you want, but there is not a bit of religion."

Hugo admires the cathedral not as a stronghold of faith, but as a “huge stone symphony”, as a “colossal creation of man and people”; for him, this is a wonderful result of the combination of all the forces of the era, where in every stone one can see “the imagination of the worker, taking hundreds of forms, guided by the genius of the artist.” Great works of art, according to Hugo, emerge from the depths of the people's genius: "... The largest monuments of the past are not so much the creations of an individual, but of an entire society; this is most likely a consequence of the creative efforts of the people than a brilliant flash of genius... The artist, the individual, the person disappear in these huge masses, without leaving behind the name of the creator; the human mind in them has its expression and its overall result. Here time is the architect, and the people are the mason.”

If the romantics of the older generation saw in the Gothic temple an expression of the mystical ideals of the Middle Ages and associated with it the desire to escape from everyday suffering into the bosom of religion and otherworldly dreams, then for Hugo medieval Gothic is, first of all, a wonderful folk art, an expression of a talented folk soul with all its aspirations, fears and beliefs of his time. That is why the cathedral in the novel is not the arena of mystical, but of the most everyday passions. That is why the unfortunate foundling, the bell-ringer Quasimodo, is so inseparable from the cathedral. He, and not the gloomy clergyman Claude Frollo, is his true soul. He understands the music of its bells better than anyone else, and the fantastic sculptures of its portals seem akin to him. It was he - Quasimodo - who “poured life into this immense building,” says the author.

The main ideological and compositional core of the novel “Notre Dame Cathedral” is the love of the gypsy Esmeralda of two heroes: the cathedral archdeacon Claude Frollo and the cathedral bell ringer Quasimodo. The main characters of the novel emerge from the very thick of the crowd, which plays a decisive role in the entire concept of the novel - the street dancer Esmeralda and the hunchbacked bell-ringer Quasimodo. We meet them during a public festival in the square in front of the cathedral, where Esmeralda dances and performs magic tricks with the help of her goat, and Quasimodo leads the clownish procession as the king of freaks. Both of them are so closely connected with the picturesque crowd that surrounds them that it seems as if the artist only temporarily removed them from it in order to push them onto the stage and make them the main characters of his work.

Esmeralda and Quasimodo seem to represent two different faces of this polyphonic crowd.

a. Esmeralda

The beautiful Esmeralda personifies everything good, talented, natural and beautiful that the great soul of the people carries within itself, and the opposite of the gloomy medieval asceticism forcibly instilled in the people by church fanatics. It’s not for nothing that she is so cheerful and musical, she loves songs, dance and life itself so much, this little street dancer. It is not for nothing that she is so chaste and at the same time so natural and straightforward in her love, so carefree and kind with everyone, even with Quasimodo, although he inspires her with insurmountable fear with his ugliness. Esmeralda is a true child of the people, her dancing gives joy ordinary people, she is idolized by the poor, schoolchildren, beggars and ragamuffins from the Court of Miracles. Esmeralda is all joy and harmony, her image just begs to be staged, and it is no coincidence that Hugo reworked his novel for the ballet “Esmeralda,” which still does not leave the European stage.

“...Whether this young girl was a human being, a fairy or an angel, this Gringoire, this skeptical philosopher, this ironic poet, could not immediately determine, he was so fascinated by the dazzling vision.

She was short in stature, but seemed tall - she was so built slim figure. She was dark-skinned, but it was not difficult to guess that during the day her skin had that wonderful golden hue that is characteristic of Andalusian and Roman women. The little foot was also the foot of an Andalusian - she walked so lightly in her narrow, graceful shoe. The girl danced, fluttered, twirled on an old Persian carpet carelessly thrown at her feet, and every time her radiant face appeared in front of you, the gaze of her large black eyes blinded you like lightning.

The eyes of the entire crowd were glued to her, all mouths agape. She danced to the rumble of a tambourine, which her round, virgin hands raised high above her head. Thin, fragile, with bare shoulders and slender legs occasionally flashing from under her skirt, black-haired, quick as a wasp, in a golden bodice that tightly fitted her waist, in a colorful billowing dress, shining with her eyes, she truly seemed like an unearthly creature...”

b. Quasimodo

Another democratic hero of the novel, the foundling Quasimodo, rather personifies the terrible force hidden in the people, still dark, shackled by slavery and prejudice, but great and selfless in their selfless feeling, formidable and powerful in their rage. Which sometimes rises like the wrath of a rebel titan throwing off centuries-old chains.

Claude Frollo “baptized his adopted son and named him “Quasimodo” - either the memory of the day when he found him (for Catholics the first Sunday after Easter, Thomas Sunday; and in Latin it means “as if”, “almost.”), then or wanting to express with this name how imperfect the unfortunate little creature is, how crudely made. Indeed, Quasimodo, one-eyed, hunchbacked, was only almost a man.

The image of Quasimodo is the artistic embodiment of the theory of the romantic grotesque. The incredible and monstrous prevail here over the real. First of all, this refers to the exaggeration of ugliness and all sorts of misfortunes that befall one person.

“...It is difficult to describe this tetrahedral nose, horseshoe-shaped mouth, tiny left eye, almost covered by a bristly red eyebrow, while the right one completely disappeared under a huge wart, broken crooked teeth, reminiscent of the battlements of a fortress wall, this cracked lip, over which it hung, as if an elephant’s tusk, one of the teeth, that cleft chin... But it’s even more difficult to describe the mixture of anger, amazement, and sadness that was reflected on this man’s face. Now try to imagine it all together!

The approval was unanimous. The crowd rushed to the chapel. From there the venerable pope of jesters was brought out in triumph. But now the amazement and delight of the crowd reached its highest limit. The grimace was his real face.

Or rather, he was all a grimace. A huge head covered with red stubble; a huge hump between the shoulder blades and another, balancing it, on the chest; his hips were so dislocated that his legs could meet at the knees, strangely resembling two sickles in front with connected handles; wide feet, monstrous hands. And, despite this ugliness, in his entire figure there was some kind of formidable expression of strength, agility and courage - an extraordinary exception to that general rule which requires that strength, like beauty, comes from harmony..."

Quasimodo "is all grimace." He was born “crooked, hunchbacked, lame”; then the ringing of the bells burst his eardrums - and he became deaf. In addition, deafness made him seem mute (“When necessity forced him to speak, his tongue turned clumsily and heavily, like a door on rusty hinges”). The artist figuratively imagines his soul, chained in an ugly body, as “twisted and decayed” like the prisoners of Venetian prisons who lived to old age, “bent over three times in too narrow and too short stone boxes.”

At the same time, Quasimodo is the limit of not only ugliness, but also rejection: “From his very first steps among people, he felt and then clearly realized himself as a being rejected, spat upon, branded. Human speech for him was either a mockery or a curse.” Thus, the humanistic theme of outcasts, guilty without guilt, damned by an unjust human court, is developed already in Hugo’s first significant novel.

Hugo's grotesque is a "standard of comparison" and a fruitful "means of contrast." This contrast can be external or internal or both. Quasimodo's ugliness, first of all, contrasts sharply with Esmeralda's beauty. Next to him, she seems especially touching and charming, which is most effectively revealed in the scene at the pillory, when Esmeralda approaches the terrible, embittered and tormented by an unbearable thirst Quasimodo to give him something to drink (“Who would not be touched by the sight of beauty, freshness, innocence, charm and fragility, which came in a fit of mercy to the aid of the embodiment of misfortune, ugliness and malice! At the pillory, this spectacle was majestic.”

Quasimodo's ugliness contrasts even more with his inner beauty, which is manifested in his selfless and devoted love for Esmeralda. The culminating moment in the revelation of the true greatness of his soul is the scene of the kidnapping of Esmeralda, who was sentenced to hanging - the same scene that delighted the crowd surrounding them both: “... in these moments Quasimodo was truly beautiful. He was beautiful, this orphan, a foundling , ... he felt majestic and strong, he looked into the face of this society, which had expelled him, but in whose affairs he had so imperiously interfered; , these bailiffs, judges and executioners, all this royal power, which he, insignificant, broke with the help of almighty God."

The moral greatness, devotion and spiritual beauty of Quasimodo will once again appear in all its strength at the very end of the novel, when, having failed to protect Esmeralda from her main enemy - Archdeacon Claude Frollo, who nevertheless achieved the execution of the unfortunate gypsy, Quasimodo comes to die near her corpse, finding his beloved only in death.

It is significant that moral idea novel, associated mainly with Quasimodo, was perfectly understood and highly appreciated by F.M. Dostoevsky. Proposing to translate “Notre Dame Cathedral” into Russian, he wrote in 1862 in the magazine “Time” that the idea of ​​this work is “the restoration of a lost person, crushed unfairly by the oppression of circumstances... This idea is the justification of the humiliated and rejected pariahs of society... To whom It wouldn’t even occur to you,” Dostoevsky further wrote, “that Quasimodo is the personification of the oppressed and despised medieval people French, deaf and disfigured, gifted only with terrible physical strength, but in whom love and the thirst for justice finally awakens, and with them the consciousness of his truth and his still untouched infinite powers... Victor Hugo is almost the main herald of this idea of ​​​​"restoration" in literature of our century. At least he was the first to express this idea with such artistic force in art."

Thus, Dostoevsky also emphasizes that the image of Quasimodo is a symbol associated with Hugo’s democratic pathos, with his assessment of the people as bearers of high moral principles.

V. Claude Frollo

But if it is precisely these humiliated and rejected pariahs of society - such as Quasimodo or Esmeralda - that Hugo gives best feelings: kindness, sincerity, selfless devotion and love, then their antipodes, standing at the helm of spiritual and temporal power, like the archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral Claude Frollo or King Louis XI, he paints, on the contrary, as cruel, self-centered, complete indifference to the suffering of other people.

Archdeacon Claude Frollo, like Quasimodo, is a grotesque character in the novel. If Quasimodo frightens with his external ugliness, then Claude Frollo causes horror with the secret passions that overwhelm his soul. “Why did his broad forehead become bald, why was his head always lowered?.. What secret thought twisted his mouth with a bitter smile, while his frowning eyebrows met like two bulls ready to rush into battle?.. What kind of secret flame flared up at times in his gaze?..." - the artist introduces him with such terrible and mysterious words from the very beginning.

In the person of one of the main characters of the novel, the learned scholastic Claude Frollo, he shows the collapse of dogmatism and asceticism. Claude's thought is sterile, his science is not creative power Fausta, she doesn't create anything. The imprint of death and desolation is felt in his cell, where he conducts his work: “... compasses and retorts lay on the table. Animal skeletons hung from the ceiling... Human and horse skulls lay on manuscripts... On the floor, without any pity for the fragility of their parchment pages, piles of huge open volumes were piled up. In a word, all the rubbish of science was collected here, and in all this chaos there was dust and cobwebs.”

A Catholic priest, bound by a vow of chastity and hating women, but consumed by carnal lust for a beautiful gypsy, a learned theologian who preferred witchcraft and a passionate search for the secret of gold mining to true faith and mercy - this is how the gloomy image of the Parisian archdeacon is revealed, playing an extremely important role in the ideological and artistic concept of the novel.

Claude Frollo is a true romantic villain, gripped by an all-consuming and destructive passion. This evil, perverted and, in the full sense of the word, demonic passion is capable only of terrible hatred and frenzied lust. The priest's passion destroys not only the innocent Esmeralda, but also his own gloomy and confused soul.

The author deliberately endows the learned archdeacon, who is the most intellectual hero of the novel, with the ability for introspection and critical assessment of his actions. In contrast to the tongue-tied Quasimodo, he is capable of pathetic speeches, and internal monologues reveal the outbursts of feelings and sinful thoughts that overwhelm him. Seized by a vicious passion, he comes to the point of denying church institutions and God himself: “He saw his soul and shuddered... He thought about the madness of eternal vows, about the futility of science, faith, virtue, about the uselessness of God”; then he discovers that love, which in the soul of a normal person generates only goodness, turns into “something monstrous” in the soul of a priest, and the priest himself “becomes a demon”

(this is how Hugo encroaches on the holy of holies of Catholicism, denying moral meaning ascetic suppression of human natural inclinations). "Scientist - I outraged science; nobleman - I disgraced my name; clergyman - I turned the breviary into a pillow for lustful dreams; I spat in the face of my god! All for you, enchantress!" - Claude Frollo shouts to Esmeralda in a frenzy. And when the girl pushes him away with horror and disgust, he sends her to her death.

Claude Frollo is one of the most evil and tragic characters in Notre Dame, and it is not for nothing that he is destined for such a terrible and tragic end. The author not only kills him with the hand of the enraged Quasimodo, who, realizing that it was the archdeacon who was the cause of Esmeralda’s death, throws him from the roof of the cathedral, but also forces him to die in cruel torment. The visibility of suffering that Hugo achieves in the scene of the death of the archdeacon, hanging over the abyss with his eyelids closed and his hair standing on end, is amazing!

The image of Claude Frollo was generated by the turbulent political situation in which Hugo's novel was created. Clericalism, which was the main support of the Bourbons and the Restoration regime, aroused fierce hatred on the eve and in the first years after the July Revolution among the broadest layers of France. Finishing his book in 1831, Hugo could observe how an angry crowd destroyed the monastery of Saint-Germain-L-Auxerrois and the archbishop's palace in Paris and how peasants knocked down crosses from chapels on the main roads. The image of the archdeacon opens up a whole gallery of fanatics, executioners and fanatics of the Catholic Church, whom Hugo will expose throughout his work.

Mr. Louis XI

"...Holding a long scroll in his hands, he stood with his head uncovered behind a chair in which, clumsily bent, legs crossed and leaning on the table, sat a very shabbily dressed figure. Imagine in this magnificent chair upholstered in Cordovan leather the angular knees, skinny thighs in a worn tights made of black wool, a body dressed in a flannel caftan trimmed with shabby fur, and as a headdress - an old greasy hat made of the worst cloth, with lead figures attached around the entire crown. Add to this a dirty skullcap, which almost hid it. hair - that’s all that could be seen in this sitting figure. The head of this man was bowed so low on his chest that his face was drowned in shadow and only the tip of his long nose was visible, on which a ray of light fell across his withered, wrinkled hands. guess that he was an old man. It was Louis XI."

He, no less cruel an executioner than the Parisian archdeacon, decides the fate of the poor gypsy in the novel. Showing widely and diversely the entire background of the medieval public life, Hugo would not have said everything he should if he had not introduced into the work this significant figure for the French Middle Ages - Louis XI.

However, he approached the depiction of the really existing Louis XI, whom Hugo introduced into his “work of imagination, caprice and fantasy,” differently from the depiction of the fictional characters of the novel. The monstrous grotesqueness of Quasimodo, the poetry of Esmeralda, the demonism of Claude Frollo give way to precision and restraint when, by the end of the novel, the writer approaches the reconstruction of the complex politics, palace environment and inner circle of King Louis.

The crown bearer in flannel pants, with a toothless mouth and the wary gaze of a fox, carefully counts every sou, checking the expense items. The price of the bars of an iron cage is more important to him than the life of the prisoner imprisoned in this cage. With cold cruelty, he orders his henchman to shoot at the rioting crowd, hang the gypsy Esmeralda on the gallows: “Grab them, Tristan! Grab these scoundrels! Run, my friend Tristan! Beat them!.. Crush the mob. Hang the sorceress.”

It is noteworthy that no palace pomp and no romantic surroundings accompany the figure of the king in the novel. For Louis XI, who completed the unification of the French kingdom, is revealed here rather as an exponent of the bourgeois rather than the feudal spirit of the times. Relying on the bourgeoisie and the cities, this cunning and intelligent politician waged a persistent struggle to suppress feudal claims in order to strengthen his unlimited power.

In full accordance with history, Louis XI is shown in the novel as a cruel, hypocritical and calculating monarch who feels best in a small cell in one of the towers of the Bastille, wears a shabby doublet and old stockings, although, without sparing, he spends money on his favorite invention - cages for state criminals, aptly nicknamed by the people “the king’s daughters.”

With all the realism of this figure, the author of Notre Dame does not forget to emphasize the sharp contrast between the outward piety and the extreme cruelty and stinginess of the king. This is perfectly revealed in the characterization given to him by the poet Gringoire:

“Under the power of this pious quiet man, the gallows are cracking from thousands of hanged people, scaffolds from shed blood, prisons are bursting like overflowing wombs! With one hand he robs, with the other he hangs. This is the prosecutor of Mr. Tax and the Empress Gallows.”

Having introduced you to the royal cell, the author makes the reader a witness to how the king breaks out in angry abuse, looking through accounts for minor state needs, but willingly approves the item of expenditure that is required to carry out torture and executions. ("...You are ruining us! What do we need such a court staff for? Two chaplains, ten livres a month each, and a servant in the chapel, one hundred sous! A chamberlain, ninety livres a year! Four stewards, one hundred and twenty livres a year each! Overseer for the workers, a gardener, an assistant cook, a chief cook, a keeper of weapons, two scribes for keeping accounts, ten livres a month each! The groom and his two assistants, twenty-four livres a month, the senior blacksmith - one hundred and twenty livres! livres! No, this is madness! Keeping our servants is ruining France!

Henri Cousin, the chief executioner of the city of Paris, was given sixty Parisian sous for the purchase, according to the order, of a large broad sword for the beheading and execution of persons sentenced to this by justice for their offenses, as well as for the purchase of a scabbard and all accessories relying on it; and equally for the repair and renewal of the old sword, which was cracked and jagged during the execution of Messire Louis of Luxembourg, from which it clearly follows...

Enough,” the king interrupted him. - I am very happy to approve this amount. I don’t skimp on this kind of expense. “I never spared money on this,” he says.)

But the reaction of the French monarch to the uprising of the Parisian mob, who rose up to save a poor gypsy falsely accused of witchcraft and murder from royal and church “justice”, is especially eloquent.

Creating, as it were, an artistic encyclopedia of medieval life, it is not for nothing that Hugo introduces into the novel an entire army of Parisian hunger, which found refuge in the outlandish courtyard of miracles in the center of old Paris. Throughout the Middle Ages, beggars and vagabonds were the ferment of indignation and rebellion against the upper feudal classes. From the very beginning of its existence, royal power waged a struggle against this rebellious mass, which constantly eluded its sphere of influence. But despite decrees and numerous laws condemning those guilty of vagrancy and beggary to exile, torture on the wheel or burning, not one of the French kings was able to get rid of vagrants and beggars. United in corporations, with their own laws and regulations, the disobedient vagabonds sometimes formed something like a state within a state. Joining artisans or peasants who rebelled against their lords, this rebellious mass often attacked feudal castles, monasteries and abbeys. History has preserved many genuine and legendary names of the leaders of the armies of these ragamuffins. The most talented poet of the 15th century, François Villop, at one time belonged to one of these corporations, in whose poems the spirit of freedom and rebellion characteristic of this peculiar bohemia of the Middle Ages is very noticeable.

The storming of Notre Dame Cathedral by a crowd of thousands of Parisian bastards, depicted by Hugo in his novel, is symbolic in nature, as if foreshadowing the victorious storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789.

The storming of the cathedral also reveals the cunning policy of the French king towards the different social classes of his kingdom. The rebellion of the Parisian mob, which he initially mistook for an uprising directed against a judge who enjoyed wide privileges and rights, is perceived by the king with barely contained joy: it seems to him that his “good people” are helping him fight his enemies. But as soon as the king finds out that the mob is not storming the court’s palace, but the cathedral, which is in his own possession, then “the fox turns into a hyena.” Although the historian of Louis XI, Philippe de Commines, called him “the king of the common people,” Hugo, by no means inclined to believe such descriptions, perfectly shows what the true aspirations of the king were. It is only important for the king to use the people for his own purposes; he can support the Parisian mob only insofar as it plays into his hands in his fight against feudalism, but deals harshly with it as soon as it gets in the way of his interests. At such moments, the king and feudal rulers find themselves together with the clergy on one side of the barricades, while the people remain on the other. The tragic ending of the novel leads to this historically correct conclusion: the defeat of the rebellious crowd by royal troops and the execution of the gypsy woman, as demanded by the church.

The finale of "Notre Dame de Paris", in which all of him die a terrible death romantic heroes- and Quasimodo, and Claude Frollo, and Esmeralda, and her numerous defenders from the Palace of Miracles - emphasizes the drama of the novel and reveals the author’s philosophical concept. The world is designed for joy, happiness, kindness and sunshine, as the little dancer Esmeralda understands it. But feudal society spoils this world with its unfair trials, church prohibitions, and royal tyranny. The upper classes are guilty of this before the people. This is why the author of Notre Dame justifies the revolution as a cleansing and renewal of the world.

Not only does the storming of the cathedral remind us of the storming of the Bastille in the novel, but also the prophetic words of Master Copenol predict a great revolution for King Louis XI. Copenol announces that the “hour of the people” in France “has not yet struck,” but it will strike “when the tower collapses with a hellish roar.” And the darkened king, placed by the artist in one of the towers of the Bastille so that this prophecy would be more visible, pats his hand on the thick wall of the tower and thoughtfully asks: “You will not fall so easily, my good Bastille.”

Hugo's philosophical concept of the 30s - a world created according to the antithesis of the beautiful, sunny, joyful and evil, ugly, inhuman, artificially imposed on him by secular and spiritual authorities - is noticeably reflected in romantic artistic means"Notre Dame Cathedral"

All kinds of horrors that fill the work, such as the “rat hole” where penitent sinners wall themselves up forever, or the torture chamber in which poor Esmeralda is tormented, or the terrible Moncofon, where the intertwined skeletons of Esmeralda and Quasimodo are discovered, alternate with magnificent images of folk art, the embodiment of which is not only the cathedral, but the whole of medieval Paris, described as a “stone chronicle” in the unforgettable “Bird's Eye View of Paris”.

Hugo seems to be painting, either with a thin pencil or with paints, a picture of medieval Paris with that inherent sense of color, plasticity and dynamics that manifested itself in him starting with “Oriental Motifs.” The artist distinguishes and conveys to the reader not only general form city, but also the smallest details, all the characteristic details of Gothic architecture. Here are the palaces of Saint-Paul and the Tuiles (which no longer belongs to the king, but to the people, since “his brow is twice marked ... by the revolution”), and mansions and abbeys, and towers, and the streets of old Paris, captured in a bright and contrasting romantic manner (the airy and enchanting spectacle of the La Tournelle palace with its tall forest of arrows, turrets and bell towers and the monstrous Bastille with its cannons sticking out between the battlements like black beaks). The spectacle that Hugo shows us is both openwork (since the artist makes the reader look at Paris through a forest of spiers and towers) and colorful (so he draws his attention to the Seine in its green and yellow tints, to the blue horizon, to the play of shadows and light in a gloomy labyrinth of buildings, on a black silhouette protruding in the copper sky of sunset), and plastically (for we always see the silhouettes of towers or the sharp outlines of spiers and ridges), and dynamically (this is how the reader is invited to “spill” a river across the vast city, “ tear it apart with wedges of islands, compress it with the arches of bridges, carve out the Gothic profile of old Paris on the horizon, and even make its contours sway in the winter fog clinging to countless chimneys). The writer, as it were, turns the created panorama before his eyes and completes it, appealing to the reader’s imagination; puts it from different angles, addresses different times year or hours of the day, anticipating in this experiment the experience of impressionist artists.

The visual image of old Paris is complemented by its sound characteristics, when in the polyphonic choir of Parisian bells “a thick stream of sounding vibrations... floats, sways, bounces, spins over the city.”

"...The first blow of the copper tongue on the inner walls of the bell shook the beams on which it hung. Quasimodo seemed to vibrate along with the bell. “Come on!” he cried, bursting into senseless laughter. The bell swayed faster and faster, and as its angle its scope increased, Quasimodo’s eye, flaming and sparkling with a phosphorescent brilliance, opened wider and wider.

Finally, the big bell began, the whole tower trembled; the beam, the gutters, the stone slabs, everything from the foundation pile to the trefoils crowning the tower hummed at the same time. The unbridled, furious bell alternately opened its bronze mouth above one opening of the tower, then above another, from which the breath of a storm burst forth, spreading over four leagues around. It was the only speech accessible to Quasimodo's ear, the only sound that broke the silence of the universe. And he basked like a bird in the sun. Suddenly the fury of the bell was transmitted to him; his eye took on a strange expression; Quasimodo lay in wait for the bell, like a spider lies in wait for a fly, and when it approached, he rushed headlong at it. Hanging over the abyss, following the bell in its terrible scope, he grabbed the copper monster by the ears, squeezed it tightly with his knees, spurred it with the blows of his heels and with all his effort, with all the weight of his body, increased the frenzy of the ringing...”

Hugo not only singles out in the overall symphony the individual voices of different belfries, some of which rise upward, “light, winged, piercing,” others “fall heavily” down, he also creates a kind of roll call of sound and visual perceptions, likening some sounds "dazzling zigzags" of lightning; The rolling of the alarm bell of Notre Dame Cathedral sparkles in his description, “like sparks on an anvil under the blows of a hammer,” and the fast and sharp chime from the bell tower of the Church of the Annunciation, “scattering, sparkles like a diamond star beam.”

The romantic perception of the outside world, as is clear from this description, is unusually picturesque, sonorous and enchanting: “Is there anything in the whole world more magnificent, more joyful, more beautiful and more dazzling than this confusion of bells and belfries.”

This novel was a major victory for a great artist, a victory that even Hugo’s enemies could not deny; artistic images the novel were more undeniable and more convincing arguments of the artist - innovator.

The novel amazes with its richness and dynamism of action. Hugo seems to transport the reader from one world to a completely different one: the echoing silence of the cathedral is suddenly replaced by the noise of the square, which is bustling with people, where there is so much life and movement, where the tragic and the funny, cruelty and fun are so strangely and whimsically combined. But now the reader is already under the gloomy arches of the Bastille, where the ominous silence is broken by the groans of victims languishing in stone bags.

The death of heroes serves as a moral judgment against evil in the novel Notre Dame (1831). Evil in "Cathedral" is " old system”, with which Hugo fought during the years of creation of the novel, during the era of the revolution of 1830, the “old order” and its foundations, namely (according to the writer) the king, justice and the church. The action in the novel takes place in Paris in 1482. The writer often talks about the “era” as the subject of his depiction. And in fact, Hugo appears fully armed with knowledge. Romantic historicism is clearly demonstrated by the abundance of descriptions and discussions, sketches about the morals of the era, its “color”.

In accordance with the tradition of the romantic historical novel, Hugo creates an epic, even grandiose canvas, preferring the depiction of large, open spaces rather than interiors, crowd scenes, and colorful spectacles. The novel is perceived as a theatrical performance, as a drama in the spirit of Shakespeare, when life itself, powerful and multicolored, enters the stage, breaking all sorts of “rules.” The scene is all of Paris, painted with amazing clarity, with amazing knowledge of the city, its history, its architecture, like a painter’s canvas, like the creation of an architect. Hugo seems to be composing his novel from gigantic boulders, from powerful building parts - just as Notre Dame Cathedral was built in Paris. Hugo's novels are generally similar to the Cathedral - they are majestic, ponderous, harmonious more in spirit than in form. The writer does not so much develop the plot as lay stone by stone, chapter by chapter.

Cathedral— main character novel, which corresponds to the descriptive and picturesque nature of romanticism, the nature of the writing style of Hugo - an architect - through the style of considering the features of the era. The cathedral is also a symbol of the Middle Ages, the enduring beauty of its monuments and the ugliness of religion. The main characters of the novel - the bell ringer Quasimodo and the archdeacon Claude Frollo - are not only inhabitants, but creatures of the Cathedral. If in Quasimodo the Cathedral completes his ugly appearance, then in Claude it creates spiritual ugliness.

Quasimodo- another embodiment of Hugo’s democratic and humanistic idea. In the “old order” with which Hugo fought, everything was determined by appearance, class, and costume - the soul of Quasimodo appears in the shell of an ugly bell-ringer, an outcast, an outcast. This is the lowest link in the social hierarchy, crowned by the king. But the highest is in the hierarchy moral values, established by the writer. Quasimodo's selfless, selfless love transforms his essence and turns into a way of evaluating all the other heroes of the novel - Claude, whose feelings are disfigured by religion, the simpleton Esmeralda, who idolizes the magnificent uniform of an officer, this officer himself, an insignificant veil in a beautiful uniform.

In the characters, conflicts, and plot of the novel, what became a sign of romanticism was established—exceptional characters in extraordinary circumstances. Each of the main characters is the fruit of romantic symbolization, the extreme embodiment of one or another quality. There is relatively little action in the novel, not only due to its ponderous descriptiveness, but also due to the romantic nature of the characters: emotional connections are established between them; instantly, with one touch, with one glance from Quasimodo, Claude, Esmeralda, currents of extraordinary power arise, and they outstrip the action . The aesthetics of hyperbole and contrasts enhance emotional tension, bringing it to the limit. Hugo puts the heroes in the most extraordinary, in exceptional situations, which are generated both by the logic of exceptional romantic characters, and by the power of chance. So, Esmeralda dies as a result of the actions of many people who love her or wish her well - an entire army of vagabonds attacking the Cathedral, Quasimodo defending the Cathedral, Pierre Gringoire leading Esmeralda out of the Cathedral, her own mother, who detained her daughter until the soldiers appeared.

These are romantic emergencies. Hugo calls them "rock". Rock- is not the result of the writer's willfulness, he, in turn, formalizes romantic symbolization as a way of unique knowledge of reality. Behind the capricious randomness of the fate that destroyed the heroes, one sees the pattern of typical circumstances of that era, which doomed to death any manifestation of free thought, any attempt by a person to defend his right. The chain of accidents that kill heroes is unnatural, but the “old order”, the king, justice, religion, and all methods of suppression are unnatural. human personality, which Victor Hugo declared war on. The revolutionary pathos of the novel concretized the romantic conflict between high and low. The low appeared in the concrete historical guise of feudalism, royal despotism, the high - in the guise of commoners, in the writer’s now favorite theme of the outcasts. Quasimodo remained not just the embodiment of the romantic aesthetics of the grotesque - the hero who snatches Esmeralda from the clutches of “justice” and kills the archdeacon became a symbol of rebellion. Not only the truth of life, but the truth of the revolution was revealed in the romantic poetics of Hugo.

The largest work of Victor Hugo dating from this period of his activity is “Notre Dame Cathedral”.

They often write that the people in this novel by Hugo are a forgotten need, not even a people, but declassed elements of medieval society, a destructive force. In asserting this, they usually forget about the most important feature of the characterization of the people in “Notre Dame de Paris” - that they are depicted as a formidable force, possessing at the same time a huge sense of justice, humanity, nobility, which neither Phoebus de Chateaupert nor priest Frollo, much less Louis XI, who frantically threw his riflemen, knights, and gendarmes to suppress the rising “Court of Miracles.” It cannot be said that the era of Louis XI - the creator of a unified French monarchy - is reflected in this novel with sufficient completeness. But that Hugo correctly showed many of the inhuman means by which the unified French monarchy was put together is beyond doubt.

The period from the mid-20s to the mid-30s. can be considered the first - significant period creative development Hugo, during which deeply original works of art, which rightfully attracted the attention of all of Europe to Hugo.

The next few years, from the mid-30s, were especially difficult in the development of Hugo's work. before the revolution of 1848. This period is sometimes considered to be the period of Hugo's crisis, which is proved by reference to the absence of significant new works that would be equal in strength to the previous ones or would indicate some kind of shift in the writer, a transition to new themes. Indeed, many weak works were written during these years, among which the drama “Burggraf” is especially indicative, deservedly harshly assessed by Belinsky in a special review dedicated to the production of this drama in one of the St. Petersburg theaters. Numerous examples of Hugo's poetic creativity in these years are also not of particular interest and are far from the high achievements of Hugo the poet that are yet to come.

But one of the facts testifying to the fact that the writer’s development has not stopped, that his critical attitude towards the rule of the bourgeoisie is slowly but surely strengthening, not to its monarchical form, but to its essence, was the growing protest against oppression and exploitation, against the power of the pure-play. , - one of these facts is the work on the first version of the novel “Les Miserables”.

This first version differs significantly from the novel Les Misérables, written in the 60s. and enjoying such well-deserved success with the reader. But it also contains a critique of the bourgeois system, a sharp contrast between the position of the propertied classes and the oppressed, exploited masses, a direct reflection of the contradictions between labor and capital, towards the clarification of which Hugo was moving. Since the writer’s work can naturally be viewed not as a kind of accumulation of materials, but as a process in which certain trends develop, we have the right to believe that the work on the first version of Les Misérables is the most valuable moment of this second period of Hugo’s development, preparing the art of Hugo the novelist 60 's

It is important to resolve the issue of the beginning of the third stage in the artist’s work. Should we date it to 1851, the year of Hugo’s exile, the year of the beginning of his struggle against the Second Empire, or, having studied his activities during the years of the republic, record the transition to this stage already in the context of the events of 1848?

Although Hugo was inclined to idealize the Second Republic, long before the December events he entered into a struggle with the bourgeois reaction that was taking place. a systematic attack on the general democratic freedoms won in 1848. Herzen in “Past and Thoughts” was the first to notice the beginning of the growth of his democratic sentiments, which occurred precisely during the years of the Second Republic, when Hugo studied more deeply the situation of the masses of France and, with increasing passion, sought to resist the pressure of reaction - this time bourgeois reaction. which grew after the massacre of the workers into a brazen and aggressive political force. Hugo's transition to a position of active democratic activity aimed at protecting the interests of the broad masses of France, including the interests of the working class, at least within the framework of a bourgeois republic, is planned precisely in these years.

During these years, Hugo's struggle for peace also began: in 1849 he protested against the war, convincing the peoples of Europe of the possibility of a successful outcome in the struggle against militarism. Hugo came to the December events with some experience of political struggle against bourgeois reaction, with some of the hardening that he received in the events of 1850; It is especially important to emphasize the fact that 1849-1850. in Hugo's life there was a period when his direct, widespread communication with the masses began.

Only this can explain Hugo’s courageous behavior during the days of the coup and after it: the writer had already embarked on the path of active opposition to Bonapartism and went further and further, undoubtedly feeling the support and love of those masses of France who appreciated his attitude towards the coup. On December 2, “Hugo stood up to his full height under the bullets,” Herzen wrote about this. Therefore, it is appropriate to attribute the beginning of the third stage of Hugo’s creative development to 1849 - 1850, and not to the years that followed the December revolution.

In his speeches 1849 - 1850. against the bourgeois reaction, Hugo on the eve of the coup already reflected the democratic protest against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which was growing among the broad masses of France and, above all, in the ranks of the working class.

“Il est venu le temps des cathédrales”... song from the popular musical "Notre-Dame de Paris" brought fame not only to the performers, but also aroused the interest of the whole world in the novel by Victor Hugo, and in the most grandiose cathedral in France, Notre Dame Cathedral.

The cathedral, glorified by Victor Hugo in his novel of the same name, is considered the main spiritual center of Paris, and many call it "heart" cities. Rising above Paris, the cathedral attracts not only with its splendor, but also with its many secrets; legends are made about the secrets of Notre Dame Cathedral. But about everything gradually.

History of the cathedral

In the 4th century, on the site of the present Notre Dame, there was the Church of St. Sebastian, and not far from it there was the Temple of Our Lady. However, in the 12th century. Both of these buildings fell into a deplorable state, and the Parisian Bishop Maurice de Sully decided to build a new cathedral in their place, which, according to his plan, was to surpass all the cathedrals in the world in its grandeur.

Sculpture by Maurice de Sully on the church in Sully-sur-Loire.

And already in 1163, after the blessing of Pope Alexander III, the first stone was laid in the foundation of the future cathedral. It is worth noting that there were also opponents to the construction of Notre Dame; Bishop Bernard made all kinds of protests, saying that the construction of this building would cost the city’s treasury too much, while hunger reigned in the city. But Pope Alexander III did not listen to anyone and, according to legend, he himself laid the first stone in the construction of the temple.

Vicente Carducho. El papa Alejandro III consagra a Antelmo de Chignin como obispo de Belley (1626-1632)

The construction of Notre Dame Cathedral lasted almost two centuries. More than a dozen famous architects worked on its appearance, but the greatest contribution to the creation of such a multifaceted cathedral was made by Jean de Chelles and Pierre de Montreuil.

Statue of Jean de Chelles in his park hometown Shell, dep. Seine and Marne

Pierre de Montreuil

Construction was completed in 1345, taking 170 years Roman style gave way to the primacy of the Gothic, which could not but be reflected in the appearance of Notre Dame de Paris; the walls of the cathedral were decorated with a peculiar play of contours and shadows, and it had no analogues in the whole world.

The cathedral became the center of all significant events in the country. On August 18, 1572, the wedding of Margaret of Valois and Henry of Navarre took place in the cathedral. But since Henry was a Huguenot, he was not allowed into the cathedral and therefore he was behind the doors of the building for the entire ceremony, and the bride tried to remember the entire ceremony in order to later pass it on to her husband. 6 days after this strange marriage, the Huguenots were massacred by Catholics during the “Night of Bartholomew.” A few decades later, Henry of Navarre uttered what later became catchphrase,"Paris is worth a mass" and converted to Catholicism and became king of France.

Arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte at Notre Dame Cathedral for his coronation as Emperor.

Charles Percier (1764-1838), Pierre Francois Leonard Fontaine (1762-1853)

Coronation of Napoleon I at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Charles Percier (1764-1838), Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853)

Coronation of Napoleon, Jacques-Louis David

But the cathedral was not always held in high esteem. In the 17th century During the reign of Louis XIV, the tombs and stained glass windows of the cathedral were destroyed. During the French Revolution, the Convention planned to raze the great Notre Dame from the earth, the revolutionary government set conditions for the Parisians to collect “a certain amount” to help the revolution, and then the cathedral would be saved.

The money was collected, but the Jacobins did not keep their promise to the end. Cathedral bells were melted down into cannons, tombs and tombstones were cast into bullets and cartels. By order of Robespierre, the heads of the statues of the kings of the Jews were cut off. The cathedral was equipped with a wine warehouse. And only after the Thermidorian coup the cathedral was again transferred to the church. But he was in a very poor condition.

In 1831, thanks to the publication of Victor Hugo's novel, the cathedral again became the center of attention of the authorities. And in 1832, a commission was created to restore the building.

Decoration of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

The length of the cathedral is 130 meters, the height of the towers is 69 meters, the capacity is about 9,000 people.

The facades of Notre Dame Cathedral are richly decorated with sculptures. They are among the best sculptures of the Middle Ages. The sculptures tell us the story from the Fall to the Last Judgment.

Apse

Roofs and spire

Portals

Galeries de Roi

Timpanov

Apostles

Denis Parisa

Saint Stephen

Ecclesia and synagogue

Adam

The decoration of the cathedral is dominated by grey colour, this is the color of the stone from which the walls are made. The cathedral has very few windows and, like any Gothic temple, there are no wall paintings. The only source of light is the stained glass windows, but the light penetrating through the numerous stained glass windows fills the temple with a variety of shades. This play of light gives the cathedral a special enchanting beauty and a certain mystery.

Crown of thorns of Jesus Christ

The cathedral houses one of the greatest relics of Christianity - the Crown of Thorns of Jesus Christ. He traveled from Jerusalem to Constantinople. Until 1063 it was kept in Jerusalem; in 1063 it was transported to Constantinople. Then the crusading warriors captured Byzantium.

"Ecce Homo", Correggio

Byzantium was in a plundered state, local princes needed money, and Bedouin II began to sell off relics. So the crown of thorns was redeemed by Louis IX.

Louis IX Saint (El Greco, Louvre)

In 1239, the Crown of Thorns was delivered to Paris. By order of Louis, he was placed in a specially built chapel, where he remained until the French Revolution. During the revolution, the chapel was destroyed, but the crown was saved, and in 1809 it was placed in Notre Dame Cathedral, where it remains to this day.

Crown of thorns in Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral

Reliquary of the Crown of Thorns at Notre Dame de Paris

Along with the Crown of Thorns, the cathedral also contains a nail from the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Another nail can be seen in the cathedral of the city of Carpentras. Two more nails are in Italy.

Nails have long been a debate among historians; how many were there, three or four? But the answer to this question has not been found to this day.

Devil's temptation

Notre Dame is surrounded by legends. One of these legends is associated with the gate in front of the entrance to the cathedral. They are so magnificent that it is difficult to believe that man could have created them. Legend has it that their author was a blacksmith named Biscornet, who, commissioned by the canon of Notre Dame, agreed to forge a gate worthy of the grandeur of the cathedral. Biscornet was afraid of not justifying the trust of the canon, and he decided to turn to the devil for help, promising to give his soul for a magnificent job.

Portal of Our Lady Portal of the Last JudgmentPortal of St. Anne

The gates for the cathedral were a real masterpiece; openwork interlacing was combined with figured locks. But the trouble is, even the blacksmith could not open the locks on the gates; they did not yield to anyone, only after sprinkling with holy water did they yield. Biscorne could not explain what was happening, he was speechless, and a few days later he died from an unknown illness. And he took one of the secrets of Notre Dame Cathedral with him to the grave.

Gargoyles and chimeras of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral

Anyone who has ever seen the cathedral could not help but notice the many figures on the cathedral. But why do they “decorate” the temple building? Are they just a decorative element, or are they endowed with some kind of mystical powers?

Chimeras have long been considered the silent guardians of the cathedral. It was believed that at night chimeras came to life and walked around their possessions, carefully guarding the peace of the building. In fact, according to the creators of the cathedral, chimeras personify human character and the diversity of moods: from melancholy to anger, from smiles to tears. Chimeras are so “humanized” that they began to seem like living beings. And there is a legend that if you look at them in the twilight for a very long time, they “come to life.” And if you take a photo next to a chimera, then in the photo the person looks like a stone statue.

Chimeras

But these are just legends. By the way, chimeras did not always “decorate” the cathedral; they appeared on Notre Dame only during the restoration, i.e. in the Middle Ages they were not in the temple. Today you can admire the grotesque figures by visiting the Chimera Gallery. You can get to the gallery by walking up the 387 steps of the north tower, which also offers a beautiful view of Paris. One of Notre Dame's most famous chimeras is the Strix.

Gargoyles

Gargouille is translated from French as gutter or drainpipe. Thus, the monsters are nothing more than drainpipes that divert streams of rainwater from the roof and walls of the cathedral.

Gargoyles

Notre Dame Cathedral is so diverse and diverse that it attracts a huge number of tourists every year. Every Sunday you can attend a Catholic mass, and hear the largest organ in France, hear the extraordinary sound of a six-ton ​​bell (it was this bell that Quasimodo had a special love for.

Construction of Notre-Dame de Paris began in 1163, during the reign of Louis VII. The first foundation stone was laid by Pope Alexander III. However, this place was never empty. Before the appearance of the Catholic cathedral, there was St. Stephen's Basilica, the first Christian church Paris. And even earlier - the Temple of Jupiter, made in the Gallo-Roman style. The basilica stood on its foundations. The initiator of the construction of the cathedral in the eastern part of the island of Cité on the Seine was Bishop Maurice de Sully.

Construction and restoration

The construction proceeded for a long time and in stages, and each step reflected a specific period of the culture of medieval France. The date of completion of all buildings is considered to be 1345. True, under Louis XIII, in the years 1708-1725, the cathedral choir was completely changed. And during the years of the French Revolution, in July 1793, the Convention declared the need to remove from the face of the earth the symbols of all kingdoms, as a result of which all statues of kings, including Notre Dame Cathedral, were beheaded. At that moment he himself had the status of the Temple of Reason.

This became the reason for the restoration, which was carried out in the 19th century. Despite the coronation of Napoleon and his wife Josephine in the cathedral, everything was in a state of decline. They had almost decided to demolish all the buildings, but in 1831 Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name was published. The writer inspired the French to preserve old architecture and, in particular, this cathedral. A decision was made on a large-scale restoration, which began in 1841 under the leadership of Viollet-le-Duc. It is characteristic that at that moment the restorers did not set themselves the goal of restoring exactly the cathedral that existed before the start of the revolution. New elements have appeared - a gallery of chimeras and a spire 23 meters high. The adjacent buildings were also demolished, resulting in the formation of a modern square in front of the cathedral.

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Features of the cathedral

It is a complex architectural composition. The oldest building is the Portal of St. Anne, which is located on the right side of the complex. The portal of the Last Judgment is located in the center; its construction dates back to 1220-1230. The northern portal of Our Lady was built in the 13th century. It is located on the left. The southern portal of the temple was also built in the 13th century. This is a transept, and it is dedicated to St. Stephen, considered the first martyr of Christianity. The south tower houses the Emmanuel bell, which weighs 13 tons and its tongue weighs 500 kg.

The facade of the temple, facing the square, is distinguished by its legendary majesty. It is delimited vertically by projections in the wall, and horizontally it is divided by galleries. At the bottom there are the three portals mentioned above. Above them is also an arcade with statues of the kings of ancient Judea. According to Catholic tradition, the walls do not contain any paintings or ornaments from the inside, and the only sources of lighting during the day are lancet windows with stained glass.

Notre Dame Cathedral today...

Currently, the cathedral is in state ownership, and Catholic Church has the permanent right to perform religious services. It houses the see of the Archdiocese of Paris. The archbishop himself conducts liturgies only on especially solemn occasions, sometimes on Sundays. IN common days Responsibility for worship lies with the rector, who is appointed by the archdiocese. By simple days weeks and on Saturday, four masses are celebrated in the cathedral and one vespers is held. On Sunday there are five masses, as well as matins and vespers.

The cathedral houses the largest organ in France. It has 110 registers and more than 7400 pipes. The titular organists play the organ. According to tradition, each of them participates in services for three months of the year.

Along with such churches as in Barcelona, ​​the Intercession Cathedral in Moscow, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Milan Cathedral, St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, is known throughout the world and attracts thousands of tourists .

The 21st century made its sad contribution to the history of the cathedral - a fire practically destroyed the 12th century building. People started talking about restoration and different countries the world, ready to come to the rescue and participate in this process, expressing their love and respect for the work of those who were involved in the construction of this world architectural masterpiece.

Kaluga region, Borovsky district, Petrovo village

The exhibition of models “World Architectural Masterpieces” presents miniature copies of buildings protected by UNESCO to guests of the ethnographic park. The exhibition is located on the second floor of the Peace Street pavilion “Around the World”, above Peoples’ Friendship Square. Here you can admire the pyramids of Giza and the Japanese Himeji Palace, the Chinese “forbidden city” of Gugun and the Aztec Pyramid of the Sun, the Bavarian Neuschwanstein Castle and the French Chateau Chambord, the Indian Mahabodhi Temple and the Roman Pantheon, the Tower of London and the Moscow Kremlin. Miniature models are made from high-quality polymer material by Chinese craftsmen to a special order from ETNOMIR.

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