Notre Dame, Strasbourg

In the last school trip of November 2015, I saw the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

I like this Cathedral a lot. When I saw it, I was speechless and I thought: “it is amazing” and it really struck me, because no other monument caused a similar emotion to me.

Notre-Dame Strasbourg Cathedral is a Catholic church and it is dedicated to Our Lady Mary.

This Cathedral is one of the most famous in France and in the world.

It was built in 1015 in Romanesque style, but then the Cathedral was continued in Gothic style; it was finished in 1439.

The Cathedral is in Vosges sandstone; this stone is typical of the Rhine areas and its characteristic is the red colour, which is the same of Freiburg’s Breisgau Cathedral in Germany or of Basel’s Cathedral in Switzerland.

In this Cathedral there is a very high bell tower of 142 meters; all the Cathedral is immense and it is visible by the people in all over the corners of the city.

The Cathedral has got three naves with a transept; the Romanesque style is in the choir and it is the first part which was built.

In the façade there are a lot of typical Gothic elements: spires, pinnacles and a lot of sculptures with the bas-relief technique.

Inside the Cathedral there is the astronomical clock, that reproduces the process of the equinoxes.

For me this Cathedral is the symbol of Gothic style, which is my favourite; in 2012 I went to Milan for three days and I visited the Cathedral; in that moment I believed the Milan Cathedral was the biggest representation of Gothic, but two years later I learned this Cathedral was built in late Gothic style, while Strasbourg’s cathedral is a good example of Gothic style proper.