TCR Playbills The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Page 26

“Morning in Paris, a new day
appears, sing the bells

of Notre Dame.”
BY LISA KELLY,
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
In a public square just outside Notre Dame
Cathedral is a small geographic marker,
Paris Point Zero. This marks the exact center
of the city of Paris, and Parisians measure all
other locations from this point. Notre Dame
sits on the Île de la Cité in the Seine River in
the center of Paris.
But, Notre Dame is much more than the
geographic hub of Paris, it is, in many
ways, the heart and spirit of the city. More
than 12 million tourists visit the site each
year, and the toll of the bells—led by the
largest, Emmanuel—mark the hours of the
day as well as special occasions and church
services.
Joan of Arc in 1909.
During the French Revolution, twenty
eight statues in the Gallery of Kings were
destroyed and much of the stained glass was
replaced with white windows. The church
itself was used as a storage facility. In 1802,
the Cathedral was restored to the Catholic
Church, but fell into disrepair in the early
19th century.
In 1831, Victor Hugo published his novel,
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which called
attention to the deteriorating condition of the
Cathedral. The success of the novel led to
a nationwide effort to restore the Cathedral
“Someday, life will be fairer,
need will be rarer, greed will not pay.”
The construction of Notre Dame began in
1163, when the first stone was laid in the
presence of Pope Alexander III. It was built
in stages over the next two centuries and
was not completed until 1345. The famous
towers with the stained glass rose windows
and the Great Organ were added in the
13th and 14th centuries.
The notable spire was added in the mid-19th
century modeled on the original 13th century
spire. Many famous historical events have
happened at Notre Dame including the
coronation of England’s King Henry VI as
King of France in 1431, the coronation of
Napolean in 1804 and the beatification of
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and by 1864 it had been significantly
repaired.
The Cathedral was largely spared during
World War I and World War II, but the
medieval structure again needed restoration
in the 20th century. The stained glass
windows were restored in the 1960s and the
organs in the 1990s. In 2012, to celebrate
the Cathedral’s 850th birthday, all eight
bells of the North Tower and the Marie
bell of the South Tower were replaced and
modernized. In 2017, construction began to
restore the 19th century spire and to protect
the medieval wood-timber roof.
On April 15, 2019, Parisians—and the
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
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