CHAPTER IX
NOTRE-DAME
ARRONDISSEMENT IV. (HÔTEL-DE-VILLE)
RUE LUTÈCE, the French form of the Roman word Lutetia, recording the ancient name of the city, is a modern street on ancient historic ground. There, on the river island, the first settlers pitched their camp, reared their rude dwellings, laid the foundation of the city of mud to become in future days the city of light, the brilliant Ville Lumière. When the conquering Romans took possession of the primitive city and built there its first palace, the island of the Seine became l’Île du Palais.
NOTRE-DAME
Of the buildings erected there through succeeding centuries, few traces now remain. But Roman walls in perfect condition were discovered beneath the surface of the island so recently as 1906. Close to the site of Rue Lutèce ran, until the middle of last century, the ancient Rue des Fèves, where was the famous Taverne de la Pomme de Pin, a favourite meeting-place from the time of Molière of great men of letters. Crossing Rue de la Cité, formed in 1834 along the line of the old Rue St-Éloi which stretched where Degobert’s great statesman had founded the abbey St-Martial, we come to the Parvis Notre-Dame. The Parvis, so wide and open to-day, was until very recent times—well into the second half of the nineteenth century—crowded with buildings; old shops, old streets, erections connected with the old Hôtel-Dieu, covered in great part the space before the Cathedral, now an open square. The statue of Charlemagne we see there is modern, set up in 1882.
The Cathedral, beloved and venerated by Parisians from all time—“Sacra sancta ecclesia civitatis Parisiensis”—stands upon the site of two ancient churches which in early ages together formed the Episcopal church of the capital of France. One bore the name of the martyr, St. Stephen, the other was dedicated to Ste-Marie.
These churches stood on the site of a pre-Christian place of worship, a temple of Mars or Jupiter: Roman remains of great extent were found beneath the pavements when clearing away the ancient buildings on the Parvis. Fire wrought havoc on both churches, entirely destroyed one, and towards the year 1162 Sully set about the erection of a church worthy of the capital of his country. Its first stone was laid by the Guelph refugee, Pope Alexander III, in 1163. The chancel, the nave and the façade were finished without undue delay, and in 1223 the whole of the beautiful Gothic building was finished; alterations were made during the years that followed until about 1300. From that time onward Notre-Dame was made a store-house of things beautiful. The finest pictures of each succeeding age lined its walls—at length so thickly that there was room for no more. Much beautiful old work, including a fine rood screen, was carted away under Louis XIV, when space was wanted for the immense statue of the Virgin set up then in fulfilment of the vow of Louis XIII, destroyed later. The figures on the great doors, we see to-day, are modern: the original statuettes were hacked to pieces at the outbreak of the Revolution by the mob who mistook the Kings of Israel for the Kings of France!
