RISING FROM THE ASHES
1
The area where Notre Dame now stands was once a Roman city called Lutetia. It is thought the cathedral was built during the 12th century over the remnants of a pagan temple.
2
Although the cathedral’s iconic two towers look like twins, the north is a bit bigger than the south. And although the building’s famous gargoyles look medieval, they were actually added in the 19th century.
3
Notre Dame’s roof contained one of the oldest- surviving wood timber frames in Paris, built from 52 acres of trees that were cut down in the 1100s. Each of these beams was made from an individual tree, so the historic woodwork was nicknamed “the Forest”.
4
The character of Quasimodo in Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback Of Notre Dame may have been based on a real person. Around the time Hugo wrote the book, a sculptor called Henry Sibson was doing repairs in the cathedral. Sibson had a colleague who he described as a “solitary hunchback” in his autobiography.
5
During the French Revolution, 28 statues of biblical kings in the cathedral were pulled down with ropes and decapitated by a mob. These were then tossed in a trash heap but, in 1977, 21 of the heads were rediscovered in the basement of the French Bank of Foreign Trade and are now exhibited in the Musée de Cluny.
6
Bees have been living on the roof of Notre Dame since 2013. They make honey from flowering plants in nearby gardens and it is given away to the poor. The colony of around 45,000 insects survived the fire.
7
All of the cathedral’s present- day bells are named after saints. They are called Marie, Emmanuel, Gabriel, AnneGeneviève, Denis, Marcel, Etienne, BenoîtJoseph, Maurice, and Jean- Marie.
8
Notre Dame is home to one of Christianity’s most important relics – the Crown of Thorns, believed to have been worn by Jesus at his crucifixion. This survived the blaze.
9
The cathedral is actually owned by the French government, not the Catholic Church. It is the same for all churches built in the country before 1905. It is thought it is going to cost more than £ 750million to repair the damage caused by the April 19 fire.
10
Notre Dame is the most- visited monument in Paris, with 12m people going there each year. It’s currently closed to tourists following the fire, but it’s hoped it will reopen in five years’ time. ● Rebuilding Notre Dame: Inside The Great Cathedral Rescue airs tonight at 10.30pm, BBC Four.