Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
May
, had become a tabernacle decorated with scenes from the Old Testament, and, from
1630, a large canvas - 3m tall - commemorating one of the Acts of the Apostles, accompan-
ied by a poem or literary explanation. By the early 18th century, when the brotherhood of
goldsmiths was dissolved, the cathedral had received 76 such monumental paintings - just
13 can be admired today.
Crypt
Under the square in front of Notre Dame lies the
Crypte Archéologique
(Archaeological
Cité)
, a 117m-long and 28m-wide area displaying in situ the remains of structures built on
this site during the Gallo-Roman period, a 4th-century enclosure wall, the foundations of the
medieval foundlings hospice and a few of the original sewers sunk by Haussmann.
