About this place
Rising on the eastern tip of the Île de la Cité, Notre-Dame de Paris is the most famous cathedral in the world and the symbolic centre of France, the point from which every road distance in the country is measured. Construction began in 1163 under King Louis the Seventh and continued for almost two hundred years until the building was largely complete around 1345. Its twin towers reach sixty nine metres, its great rose windows glow with medieval stained glass, and Napoleon crowned himself Emperor beneath its vaults in 1804. On 15 April 2019 a catastrophic fire destroyed the roof and toppled the nineteenth century spire, yet the stone vaults, the towers, and the sacred relics largely survived. After five years of work by more than a thousand artisans, the cathedral reopened on 7 December 2024, its spire rebuilt and its interior restored to a brilliance unseen in generations.
Key facts
- 1163 year — Construction of the Gothic cathedral began, continuing for nearly two centuries
- 2024 year — Notre-Dame reopened on 7 December, five years after the devastating fire
- 96 metres — Height of the rebuilt spire, reconstructed exactly as the nineteenth century original
📍 Parvis Notre-Dame - Place Jean-Paul II 6, 75004, Paris