1163 Planning the Cathedral

• Published in: Notre Dame Cathedral pp. 4 - 15
• Main Authors: Sandron, Dany, Tallon, Andrew
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: University Park, USA Penn State University Press 15.03.2020
• ISBN: 027108622X; 9780271086224
• DOI: 10.1515/9780271087726-002

Beginning in the 1160s, the Gothic cathedral progressively replaced several earlier buildings, many of them relatively small in scale, situated at the east end of the Île de la Cité. Often in a precarious state of preservation, these diverse edifices offered a glimpse of the long history of the mother church of the diocese, which dated back to the fourth century. The written sources attest to the existence of three sanctuaries at the beginning of the twelfth century, including a church dedicated to Saint Stephen—perhaps from the Early Middle Ages—and another dedicated to the Virgin Mary, attested from