No wonder we feel the agony of Notre-Dame so acutely in Britain. Not only does the cathedral hold a special place in British hearts. But our greatest cathedrals and churches owe a huge stylistic debt to Notre-Dame.
Most of Britain’s great cathedrals are Gothic – and the Gothic style was born in northern France. And the greatest global example of French Gothic is poor, torched Notre-Dame.
The Gothic style began in northern France in the 12th century AD. Notre-Dame wasn’t quite the first Gothic building. That honour goes to Saint Denis Cathedral, four miles outside the Paris city centre. In 1144, Saint Denis was the first church in the world to have all the Gothic elements. But very soon after, in 1163, Notre-Dame emulated Saint-Denis’s Gothic style and pumped it up to a massive, heavenly scale.
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