Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame is the world's most beloved cathedral.

Notre-Dame de Paris, Our Lady of Paris, is arguably the most famous medieval building in the world. Flying buttresses lift eyes upward. Stone gargoyles and saints peer down from their perches.

Sunlight streaming through the rose windows splashed the stones with color. Ribbed vaults divided the upper space. Nothing distracted from the clerestory windows or the arches.

Notre Dame will rise from the ashes. This brief text, interspersed with photos taken right before the 2019 fire, touches on the iconic and unique elements of the cathedral.

Explore the site's historic glory in Notre Dame Cathedral: Our Lady of Paris (a Travel Art Photo book).

Laine Cunningham, a three-time recipient of The Hackney Award, writes fiction that takes readers around the world. Her debut novel, The Family Made of Dust, is set in the Australian Outback, while Reparation is a novel of the American Great Plains. She is the editor of Sunspot Literary Journal.