Notre Dame, French for Our Lady – one of the
first buildings constructed using flying
buttresses, or arched exterior supports.
Construction began in 1163. 
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Gothic sculptures on the exterior
Chilling – something you’d never see
in a church today.
Famous gargoyles are water spouts, keeping rain
away from cathedral walls.  Remember the novel
“Hunchback of Notre Dame”?  The character of
 Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer, drew
 attention to the cathedral, and its magnificent
architecture.  Published in 1831, it probably
 saved the cathedral.  In an oddly gothic way.

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