PARIS - LE NEF DE L’ ÉGLISE NOTRE DAME

The nave is the main body of a Gothic cathedral where the congregation of the church would meet each day. These days Notre Dame sees 30 000 people per day on average and on really big occasions it is not unknown to see 50 000 visitors pass through the doors of the cathedral. These figures add up to 13 million visitors per year!

The cathedral church of Our Lady is on an island in the centre of Paris. The work on preparing the foundations (said to be 20-25 feet deep) in the wet soil must have been difficult and lengthy. Construction of the cathedral itself had already begun by 1163 when Pope Alexander III visited Paris and laid the first stone. The nave was substantially complete by around 1210 at the latest and was altered c. 1225 and partially restored in the 19th century. Despite these alterations in the thirteenth century, Notre Dame's nave retains many early Gothic characteristics like the massive, plain cylindrical columns of the nave arcades.

"At Notre Dame, the nave vaulting is a six-part system, where three ribs intersect each other. The ribs help to direct the weight of the masonry and of gravity through the support system of piers and walls, and they also help the visitor to visualize how the building is measured out based upon geometric principles."

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It is 60 metres long and 12 metres wide.

This is a postcard published by N.D. Phot No. 142: Neurdein et Cie (1860’s-1919) Paris, France.