Notre Dame in Mexico

 A couple weekends ago Alejandro and I went to a special exhibit at the Franz Meyer Museum of Decorative Arts entitled "Notre Dame en México".  The exhibit, which is called an "augmented visit", takes visitors through the Parisian cathedral's eight centuries of history.

In front of the museum Alejandro poses next to a replica of one of the famous grotesques that decorate the cathedral's roof.

At the entrance, visitors receive a tablet.  At each station of the exhibit, the tablet provides detailed information about the cathedral from its construction in the 12th century up to the disastrous fire in 2019 and the subsequent construction.  At some of the stations, the tablet gives 360 degrees views of the church.

Throughout the exhibit are large, illuminated photographs and historic pictures.

A medieval painting depicting the construction of the cathedral

A medieval map of Paris shows Notre Dame on the island in the middle of the Seine River.

The gallery of kings on the west facade of the cathedral

A fact that I did not know is that all the statues of Notre Dame were originally brightly painted.

One of the cathedral's stained-glass windows

The coronation of Napoleon and Josephine in Notre Dame as portrayed in the famous painting by Jacques-Louis David

Victor Hugo's famous novel "Notre-Dame de Paris" (known in English as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame) was written to spur interest in the cathedral which had fallen into a state of disrepair.  The popularity of the novel led to restoration work in the 1800s.

We were able to take selfies picturing ourselves as Quasimodo, the title character of the novel.

The catastrophic fire on April 15th, 2019

  

The exhibit was very crowded on a Sunday afternoon, but, in spite of that, it was an excellent experience.