When compared to other cathedrals, Notre Dame stands alone, even above Saint Mark's in Venice. The three doorways have most beautiful, deep ogives, which shows how thick the walls are.
Across the facade and sides of the cathedral, one sees episodes of Sacred Scripture sculptured in stone.
Imagine that the top part of the cathedral was not there, and that the cathedral was merely crowned by the balustrade that is above the heads of the kings (along the middle of the facade). The cathedral would still be very beautiful.
Now, imagine another edifice made up only of the great central ogive we see in the picture, plus the two lateral ogives, plus those smaller ogives that are above, which form a column of thin, intertwined and delicate ogives. Imagine just these ogives alone on the ground.
Would these ogives alone make a beautiful facade for a regular church?
Now, imagine each one of those tips on the tops of the towers converted into an oratory and placed on the ground. How beautiful they would be.
However, in Notre Dame, all three beauties are superimposed.
The French touch, for which charm is more beautiful than beauty, noted that something would be lacking if each one was isolated from the other.
Towards the back, on the roof, we see a spire. It is the famous spire of Notre Dame that offers a backdrop of lightness, grace and grandeur to the unfinished towers.
The spire is magnificent! The cross on the top has an elegance that defies words. It is beyond marvelous.
But the cathedral should not have remained this way. The main towers should have been taller.
But the gothic style died under the accursed breathe of Renaissance and Humanism. As a result, the towers were never built. And only the square tower base was built, which are full of beauty and charm.
A pleasant impression is caused by the contrast between the cathedral's height and width.
Notre Dame is slender, tall, much taller than wide. However, its width is sufficient to make the edifice look solid.
It is gracious, light, and it has an indisputable air of a fortress. It expresses the plenitude of the Medieval spirit, hierarchical, sacral, ordered, where everything is turned towards what is higher, where the most grave seriousness blends perfectly with the most light refinement, and with the most extreme distinction.
The most beautiful aspects of the Catholic soul are reflected in every sense and in every angle of the cathedral.
There is something of the glory of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the triumphal air of Notre Dame.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
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