Begun in 1163 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and largely completed by 1260, the cathedral of Notre-Dame stands on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine. It is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.
It was a pioneer of the rib vault and the flying buttress, which let its walls rise higher and open up to vast, colorful rose windows. Its sculpture is unusually rich and lifelike. Damaged during the French Revolution, it was restored between 1844 and 1864 by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, after Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame renewed public interest in it.
In April 2019, a fire destroyed its roof and spire. After five years of restoration, the cathedral reopened in December 2024. It hosted the coronation of Napoleon and the celebration of the Liberation of Paris in 1944.
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