Notre Dame Essay, Research Paper

Notre Dame

Notre Dame is a cathedral. The word cathedral comes from the Latin word

cathedra, which is the name that was given to the throne was called where the

bishop sat in his church. The cathedral was the house of God and the seat of

the bishop. The bishop is the powerfull leader of the church and the church

rules the land. Cathedrals were a sign of both economic prosperity and faith.

Building Notre Dame required a great deal of things, such as skilled

builders, millions of tons of stone, many workers, powerful leadership, and

above all else, lots of money. Most of the money, at first, came from came from

the middle class people, but kings and rich merchants ended up spending the most

on the project.

The man in charge of building was called the master builder. The people

under him were the master craftsmen, the manuel laborors, loaders, and piece

workers. For these workers, a day of hard work was worth about 2 or 3 loaves of

bread.

The stone used to build Notre Dame was gotten by digging in the ground for

it. In a location as close to where the cathedral was to be built as possible.

The stone was pulled up by oxen who could transport approximately 8000 lbs. in a

single load. The stones were held together by mortar, which was made by sand

and water mixed with lime.

Notre Dame is so tall, to make sure it wouldn’t crumble, the builder had to

use framework to support their creation called a flying buttress. The roofs

were made from lead and gutters were placed to draw rain water from the walls,

The spouts to these gutters were stone “Gargoyles” that were carved to look like

monsters who spit water when it rained.