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Notre-Dame is a Gothic Masterpiece Cathedral in île de la Cite in the Siene, Paris. The site on which it stands has been a place of worship since Roman times, when a temple to Jupiter was built here. This was followed by a Christian basilica and then a Romanesque church.
Later the Merovingains, who ruled Gaul from about 500 -751 AD, built the cathedral of St-Etienne on the same site. Notre-Dame itself was founded in 1160 by Maurice de sully, the bishop of Paris.
The internal appearance of the building was updated in the mid-13th century when the small clerestory windows typical of the Early Gothic style were enlarged downward and filled with High Gothic tracery. The enlargement caused the removal of the unusual triforium. Originally the interior had the four-story elevation common to many Early Gothic churches, and the triforium had large round openings instead of the normal arcades. The Cathedral was updated again more recently in the 1820's following the success of the novel 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame' by Victor Hugo. This was due to greater numbers of visitors who flocked to the site.
Today you can enter the Cathedral through 3 entrances. On the left hand side is the Portal of the Virgin with signs of the zodiac and the coronation of the Virgin Mary. On the right hand side is the Portal of St Anne where you can see the Virgin and Child which is one of the Cathedrals more inspiring sculptures. The central Portal Depicts the last judgment day.