Dijon - Notre-Dame

Notre-Dame, erected 1230 - 1251, is considered a jewel of 13th-century Gothic architecture in France. The planar western façade is quite unique - as it opens like a large screen to the spectator.

The "screen" is 28,6 m high by 19,5 m wide. There are three levels. The lowest (here only party seen) has three arcades forming the entry into a porch. Above are two arcaded galleries, one above the other. On each of these two upper levels the arches rest on 17 columns.

Emphasising the top and bottom of these galleries are three string courses consisting of 51 (not water-transporting) gargoyles.

The original gargoyles were in place for only a short time. They were removed already around 1240, following a fatal accident. An usurer was killed on the church forecourt, when a stone figure representing an usurer became detached and hit him. His colleagues organised the destruction of all gargoyles on the façade. A kind of vandalism, that got "repaired". The 51 gargoyles which today decorate the façade were made in 1880-1882, during the restoration of the church.

What the vandals of the French Revolution did in 1794 could not be repaired. They chiselled off the complete works over the central portal.