Firemen At Notre Dame Were Fighting to Save the More than Just a Historical Sight, but a Very Macabre Demonic Spirit As well
Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral on April 15th, 2019 was not the only spectacle at the 800 years on the building. In fact of greater significance was what the firemen were fighting to preserve the very disturbing and evil images all over the building.
These macabre and strange images date back to a time in history when most Parisians were illiterate and filled with superstition. These images lend their creation to much folk lure. One such famous story is that of the 7th-century priest who actually stayed a dragon. Accordingly, the French legend of “La Gargouille,” a fearsome dragon that terrorized the inhabitants of the town of Rouen. For centuries, according to the story, the dragon swallowed up ships and flooded the town, until around 600 BCE, when a priest named Romanus came along and agreed to vanquish the beast in exchange for the townspeople’s conversion to Christianity. Romanus tamed the dragon by making the sign of the cross, then led it into town where it was burned at the stake. The creature’s head, however, wouldn’t burn, so the townspeople cut it off and affixed it to their church. The gargoyle’s head became a ward against evil and a warning to other dragons.
The Gothic idea of a damned afterlife is one of pain and suffering, and the gargoyles can be said to represent the demons outside versus the sanctity and safety of the church inside.
A gargoyle in Notre Dame’s Cathedral in Paris, France.
The gargoyles and grotesques of Notre Dame, of which there are hundreds, are particularly stunning, and they have been keeping rainwater and evil spirits away from the church since the 13th century.
Some of them look positively ferocious, while others are elegant, and some even look a bit bored.
Gargoyle and wide city view from the roof of Notre Dame de Paris, France
Several are not even true gargoyles at all. In fact, the creatures that adorn Notre Dame cathedral are made up of various types of fantastical beasts, including: chimera, which are ornamental only and serve no real function; grotesques, which are carvings that may or may not carry water; a wyvern, which is a small 2-footed dragon; and the Styrga, often referred to as the “spitting gargoyle” and one of the most famous figures on the cathedral.
Sunset over Notre Dame cathedral, Paris, France
While the true gargoyles were prone to erosion from the very rainwater they were designed to carry away from the cathedral, many other figures were removed or destroyed in the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly during the French Revolution.
They were later replaced in the Gothic style by the French architect Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc during his 25-year restoration of Notre Dame in the mid-1800s. As was not uncommon among earlier medieval church builders, Viollet-le-Duc added a figure of himself as one of the new gargoyles.
Devil, dog, heron, and grotesque gargoyles of Notre Dame.
He believed that the restoration of the gargoyles and other grotesques on the building was a “means to re-establish [the church] to a finished state, which may in fact never have actually existed at any given time.”
Of all of the figures on the cathedral, the Styrga is perhaps the most photographed. Also called the Strix, it was added along with many other chimeras as part of Viollet-le-Duc’s restoration and resembles a bat or perhaps an owl, with a large head, a voracious beak, wings, and horns.
Top view of Paris from the tower of the Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris with the gargoyles on the foreground against of sky with clouds
It sits with its head in its hands, sticking out its tongue. It is said to eat human flesh, and reference to such a creature can be found in works by the Roman poet Ovid. Artist Charles Meyron made a series of etchings of the Styrga in the 1850s, and wrote, “This monster which I have represented does exist, and is in no way a figment of imagination. I thought I saw in this figure the personification of Luxuria (Lust).”
Monochrome photograph of the Cathedral of Paris with gargoyles.
Some of the other intriguing figures on the cathedral include a Heron, with gently folded wings and a long beak facing downwards, as if perhaps in prayer, a serious looking elephant, goats, a ferocious monkey, and a three-headed dog, not to mention a wild boar, several eagles, a chimera eating grapes, and a demon gnawing on a human soul.
Gargoyles and chimera statues of Notre Dame over Paris, France skyline. Dark clouds, vintage
The gargoyles and figures of Notre Dame have inspired many artists and writers, including the famous French author Victor Hugo, who gave the cathedral’s gargoyles a prominent role in his work The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which allegedly was written as a means to draw attention to the crumbling cathedral and inspire the restoration of the great structure.
Fittingly, if you visit the cathedral of Notre Dame, the best place to see the gargoyles and chimera is by climbing the bell towers.