07.02.

2020

Architecture
Theory 1
WS 19/20 PREPARED BY
Rezana Rushiti

Matrikel no.: 4070764

Summary of the bird's eye view of notre dame
Book III, Chapter ii

Chapter III finds the author describing about the Notre Dame in great details and
also the bird's eye view of the city and he conveys feelings of indignation
through his praise of its architecture and style extends beyond the church itself
and on to medieval Gothic architecture as a whole.
The focus was in the changes of the cathedral and the rest following with the
surrounding of the city.
One of the biggest changes in the cathedral from the 15th to the 19th century
was its view of Paris from the top of its towers, from which one could see "the
big, the small, the massive, and the ethereal. It is the Paris of 15th century
described as "sui generis", pure Gothic city , complete and homogeneous when
looking it from the summits of the Notre Dame's towers. Paris remained an
island for several centuries and had two bridges heads serving as gates and
fortresses. It is described how the city grew and overlapped the walls of Phillip
Augustus and the following who build walls for the city.
The narrator describes the formation and how the city was laid out during the
15th century, with three distinct parts—the city (Old City, the main buildings –
churches, the power is in the hands of the bishop), the university (the left bank
of the Seine, educational institutions, rector), and the town(right bank, palaces,
commercial foreman).
The architecture of the city was mainly set in the Roman and Gothic styles,
which later gave way to the Renaissance style, which the narrator laments "is
being erased every day."
Personally, I think that Hugo was developing both the church of Notre-Dame
and the city of Paris into settings every bit as rich as the book's characters.
Summary of the bird's eye view of notre dame
Book III, Chapter ii

And it is interesting because when The Hunchback of Notre Dame was written
in the mid-19th century) the church had fallen into disrepair due to damage of
the revolutions. But the author kept taking up the cathedral and also the
beauties of the city really high, as he is a Romantic.
All of the detailed description of the city of Paris as seen from the long-gone
medieval towers of Notre-Dame places the cathedral not only in a central
character role but a geographical one as well. To stand in the tower was to be
able to see every aspect of the city from a bird's-eye view, the roofs, the bridges,
the gates, the river,the boarders and even though Hugo's details are exhaustive,
he manages to cast the city into a living, breathing role as well. His description
of the sounds of its ringing church bells paints the city as one pulsing organism,
the sound of "the town singing." Yet for all of his praise of the history of the city
and Notre-Dame, Hugo's descriptions also serve as a cautionary tale for the
future, because "since then, this great town has gone on being disfigured day by
day." It is quite obvious that the Paris that the author paints is disappearing
quickly, he warns, and future generations will likely never even know of its
existence.
I find it really interesting to know the fact that the author is referring to a city
of 4 centuries before and describing with that kind of passion, something that
was pretty much non existent to him in terms of the city life and the growth of
Paris back at the time.