Notre dame

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.