This is no doubt one of the best ever world heritage site i have ever been interested in and getting a chance to learn more about it turned out to be great challenge.

Cathedral of Notre-Dame was rebuilt�during the corolingian�period and further extended in the 12th century.On May 6, 1210 the cathedral was damaged by fire and reconstruction started shortly after, beginning at the eastern end. Documentary records show the acquisition of land to the west of the site in 1218, suggesting the new cathedral was substantially larger than its predecessors, the lengthening of the nave presumably being an adaptation to afford room for the crowds that attended the coronation.In this church earlier France kings were Crowned.The towers, 81 m tall (approx. 267�ft), were originally designed to rise 120 m . The south tower holds just two great bells; one of them, named �Charlotte� by charles ,cardinal of lorraine��in 1570, weighs more than 10,000�kg.During the Hundred year’s War�the cathedral was under siege by the English from 1359 to 1360. After it fell the English held Reims and the Cathedral until 1429 when it was liberated by Joan of Arc�which allowed the Dauphin�Charles�to be Crowned king�on 17 July 1429.Formerly it was Known as tau palace��which played an important role in religious ceremonies, was almost entirely rebuilt in the 17th century.German shellfire during the opening engagements of the First World War�on 20 September 1914 burned, damaged and destroyed important parts of the cathedral. Scaffolding around the north tower caught fire, spreading the blaze to all parts of the carpentry superstructure. The lead of the roofs melted and poured through the stone gargoyles, destroying in turn the bishop’s palace.

 

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In 2011, the city of Reims celebrated the cathedral’s 800th anniversary. The celebrations ran from May 6 to October 23. Concerts, street performances, exhibitions, conferences, and a series of evening light shows highlighted the cathedral and its 800th anniversary. In addition, six new stained glass windows designed by Imi Knoebel, a German artist, were inaugurated on June 25, 2011. The six windows cover an area of 128m� and are positioned on both sides of the Chagall windows in the apse of the cathedral.

� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �A major tourism destination, the cathedral receives about one million visitors annually. In the end all i can say is thats it is an incredible piece of architecture that everyone should be aware about.

sources-1) en.wikipedia.org

2) Whc.unesco.org