The twenty-eight statues of biblical kings, mistaken for statues of French kings, were beheaded.Īll of the other giant sculptures on the facade, except for the Virgin Mary figure on the portal of the cloister, were destroyed.įor a time, the Goddess of Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary on several altars, and the cathedral came to be used as a warehouse for the storage of food and other civil purposes. Later is was again rededicated to the Cult of the Supreme Being.ĭuring this time, many of the treasures of the cathedral were either destroyed or plundered. In 1793, during the French Revolution, the cathedral was rededicated to the Cult of Reason. Also, a piece of the cross on which he was crucified, a 13th-century organ, and stained glass windows. Relics stored in the cathedral include the supposed crown of thorns that Jesus wore before his crucifixion. On 15 April 2019, the cathedral caught fire and suffered significant damage, including the roof’s collapse and the central spire and substantial damage to the rose windows. The rib vault and flying buttress’s innovative use allowed for the enormous and colorful rose windows to set it apart from the earlier Romanesque style. The cathedral is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. ![]() Notre-Dame de Paris, which means “Our Lady of Paris,” also known as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité in Paris, France. Today we can once again see the original “Heads of the Kings of Judah” and reflect on the lesson of history and hysteria. They also found three hundred other statuary fragments buried within a wall of plaster in underground foundations.įor over 500 years, these faces had witnessed Paris history from their perch on Notre Dame Cathedral. Two hundred years after the king’s heads had disappeared, workers were working at a building site discovered twenty-one of the heads. The figures were replaced in the early 19th century, but the original sculptures disappeared. Unfortunately, the mob, thinking they were French kings, tied rope around the statues, pulled them down and guillotined them in the square in front of the Cathedral. The sculptured figures, dating back to 1230, above the portals of the Cathedral, represented the kings of Judea. ![]() In 1793, the same month that Marie Antoinette was beheaded, a Paris mob collected in front of Notre Dame Cathedral and cried for the heads of more kings. In 1977, 21 of those 28 original heads were unearthed and are now on display along with other fragments from the cathedral’s portals. Unfortunately, the heads of the original figures were decapitated during the French Revolution. The west facade of Notre-Dame de Paris is adorned with statues of twenty-eight Kings of Judah. Decapitated and Guillotined Heads from Notre-Dame
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