She burned before the eyes of the world, and rose singing.
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Coming up: Veneration of the Crown of Thorns · 7 AugEntry tended 12 Jul 2026
Open daily · from 7:50 am weekdays Entry free · Treasury 12€ Crown of Thorns · Fridays 3 pm Assumption of Our Lady · 15 Aug French Gothic · begun 1163
Come early, when the parvis is still half empty, and the west front rises out of the river light like a cliff of pale lace: two square towers, three deep portals, a rose of dark glass. Inside, the stone is bright as bone after its cleaning, the vaults blond and luminous, and candle smoke drifts past chapels that glow like jewel boxes. This is the cathedral the whole world watched burn. It is filled with light again, and entering costs nothing.
In the axial chapel rests the Crown of Thorns, the relic of the Passion that Saint Louis brought into Paris in 1239. It survived the Revolution and the 2019 fire, and it is still brought out for the faithful to venerate on Fridays.
On 15 April 2019 the spire fell through the burning roof. Five years later the cathedral reopened, its forest roof rebuilt from a thousand French oaks, its spire raised again to Viollet-le-Duc's design, and more than eleven million people came through its doors in the first year.
The three great rose windows still hold their medieval tracery: the north rose raised around 1250, the south donated by Saint Louis in 1260 and nearly thirteen metres across. Firefighters saved every one of them.
Eight centuries, one night of fire
In 1163 Bishop Maurice de Sully laid the first stone of a cathedral meant to outreach anything Paris had seen, with Pope Alexander III in the city and King Louis VII looking on. The high altar was consecrated in 1182, and by about 1260 the great church stood largely complete: 127 metres long, its vaults 33 metres high, roofed by a lattice of oak beams so dense that Parisians called it the forest. For a century it was among the largest religious buildings in the Western world.
History kept walking through its doors. Saint Louis carried the Crown of Thorns here in 1239. The Revolution turned the church into a Temple of Reason and melted every bell but the great bourdon Emmanuel. Napoleon was crowned Emperor before its altar in 1804. Victor Hugo's novel made the crumbling cathedral a national cause, and from 1844 to 1864 Eugène Viollet-le-Duc restored it, crowning the crossing with a new spire of oak and lead that rose 96 metres. On 25 August 1944 the bells rang for the Liberation of Paris, and the next day a Magnificat was sung with General de Gaulle in the nave.
Then, on 15 April 2019, fire took the roof and the spire while the world watched. The towers, the facade, the vaults and the rose windows held. Five years of restoration followed, and on 7 December 2024 the Archbishop of Paris struck the closed doors with his crosier, the cathedral answered in song, and the doors opened. The next morning the new high altar was consecrated at the first Mass, with the relics of five saints of Paris sealed inside it.
What you'll actually see
1
The west front and its Gallery of Kings
A wall of carved limestone 41 metres wide, rising 69 metres to the tower tops. Three sculpted portals receive you: the Last Judgment at the centre, Saint Anne to the right, the Virgin to the left. Twenty metres up runs the Gallery of Kings, twenty-eight figures of the kings of Judea, beheaded in the Revolution and recarved in the 1850s; twenty-one of the original heads, found by chance in 1977, are kept at the Cluny Museum.
2
A nave bright as bone
The 2019 to 2024 restoration left the interior cleaner than it has been in centuries: cream-coloured stone, gilded chapel walls, and coloured light pooling on the floor. At the south transept hangs the rose window Saint Louis gave in 1260, nearly thirteen metres of medieval glass; its northern twin, from around 1250, faces it across the crossing.
3
The spire returned
Above the crossing the flèche again reaches 96 metres, rebuilt in oak and lead to Viollet-le-Duc's nineteenth-century design and crowned with a gilded rooster. The copper apostles that ring its base had been taken down for restoration when the fire broke out, and so were spared; they stand watch on the new roof today.
The restored interior under the south rose, and the new spire from the south tower · photos CC BY-SA 4.0 Ibex73 and CC0 Romainbehar, Wikimedia Commons
THE RELIC KEPT NOWHERE ELSE
Veneration of the Crown of Thorns · first Friday of each month
For sixteen centuries the faithful have venerated the relics of Christ's Passion, and Notre-Dame keeps the greatest of them: the Crown of Thorns, with a fragment of the True Cross and a Nail of the Passion, preserved in the reliquary of the axial chapel. Saint Louis acquired the Crown from the Latin Emperor of Constantinople in 1238; it entered Paris in procession on 19 August 1239, and it has been in the cathedral's care since 1806. Every first Friday of the month, between 3 pm and 5 pm, the Crown is presented for veneration; on every other Friday it is displayed from 3 pm to 6:30 pm. The next first Friday veneration falls on 7 August 2026.
No booking is needed: a dedicated queue opens 20 minutes before the celebration, opposite the Last Judgment Portal, and the nave chairs are kept for those attending.
Plan your visit
By Metro & RER
Metro Line 4 to Cité or Saint-Michel; RER B or C to Saint-Michel Notre-Dame. The cathedral stands on the Île de la Cité, a short walk from either.
Getting in
Entry is through the Last Judgment Portal on the parvis. Booking a free time slot on the official website or app is optional but shortens the wait.
Timings
Mon to Fri 7:50 am to 7 pm, Thursdays until 10 pm; Sat and Sun 8:15 am to 7:30 pm. Last entry 30 minutes before closing, open every day of the year.
Entry
The cathedral is free for all. Treasury 12€ (reduced 6€), tickets at the door. The towers are a separate CMN visit: 16€, online booking only.
Best time
The 7:50 am weekday opening gives the quietest nave; Thursday evenings stay open latest of all.
Dress
This is a working church: shoulders, torso and thighs covered, and men remove hats indoors.
For Mass
No reservation for Masses: a dedicated queue opens 20 to 30 minutes before each service, opposite the Last Judgment Portal.
Entry is 100 percent free; the cathedral warns that no third-party platform is authorised to sell tickets, so book only on notredamedeparis.fr.
The tower climb is run separately by the Centre des monuments nationaux: 424 steps to 69 metres, no tickets sold on site, and free for under-26 residents of the EU.
A free grand organ recital sounds every Sunday at 4 pm; the restored instrument has 7,952 pipes across five keyboards, the oldest of them dating from the 15th century.
The bourdon Emmanuel, cast in 1683 and named by Louis XIV, still rings in F sharp from the south tower on the great feasts; it was the only bell to survive the Revolution.
Questions pilgrims ask
Is Notre-Dame fully open again after the fire?
Yes. The cathedral reopened on 7 and 8 December 2024 after five years of restoration, and it is open every day of the year for worship and visits. Some exterior work continues around the eastern end, so you may still see scaffolding outside.
Do I need a ticket to enter?
No. Entry is free for everyone, believer or not. You can reserve a free time slot on the official website or app to shorten the queue, but walking up without one is entirely allowed. Only the Treasury (12€) and the tower climb (16€, run by the CMN) are paid.
When can I see the Crown of Thorns?
The Crown is presented for veneration every first Friday of the month from 3 pm to 5 pm, and displayed every other Friday from 3 pm to 6:30 pm. Join the dedicated queue opposite the Last Judgment Portal about 20 minutes beforehand; no booking is needed.
Did the rose windows and the great organ survive the fire?
Yes. Firefighters saved the towers, the facade, the vaults and the stained glass, and the three medieval rose windows are intact. The grand organ of 7,952 pipes was spared by the flames and was ceremonially reawakened by the Archbishop at the reopening service.
Can I attend Mass in the restored cathedral?
Every day. Weekday Masses are at 8 am, 12 noon and 6 pm, with Vespers at 5:30 pm; on Sundays there are Masses at 8:30 am, a Gregorian Mass at 10 am, Masses at 11:30 am and 6 pm, and Vespers at 5:15 pm. Access to services is free and unreserved.
The Sthan in photographs
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