Notre Dame de Paris (IPA: [nÃâtàdam dÃ⢠paÃÂi]; French for Our Lady of Paris), also known as Notre Dame Cathedral or simply Notre Dame,[2] is a historic Roman Catholic Marian cathedral on the eastern half of the ÃŽle de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. Widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and among the most well-known churches ever built, Notre Dame is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris; that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra (official chair) of the Archbishop of Paris, currently André Vingt-Trois. The cathedral treasury is notable for its reliquary, which houses the purported crown of thorns, a fragment of the True Cross and one of the Holy Nails ââ¬â all instruments of the Passion and a few of the most important first-class relics.
|
