Cathedral without its spire, draped in mourning for the funeral of the Duke of Orléans

The oldest photograph of Notre-Dame de Paris is a seven-centimetre daguerreotype of 1842 by Marc-Antoine Gaudin.

If you have noticed, the cathedral is captured without its famous spire: it was taken down in the eighteenth century, having grown badly decrepit over six hundred years. The spire was built anew only in 1859, by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, architect and restorer of the medieval monuments of France.

We see the cathedral in mourning drapery: the decoration is connected with the funeral of the Duke of Orléans.

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Cathedral without its spire, draped in mourning for the funeral of the Duke of Orléans

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