Notre Dame

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Celebrated metropolitan church of Paris, situated on the "Ile de la Cité"; it was begun to be erected in 1163 on the site of a prior Merovingian cathedral, which itself had superseded a pagan temple on the spot, and completed, at least the general ensemble of it, in 1230.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(i.e. Our Lady) is the old French appellation of the Virgin Mary, and therefore the name of a number of churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary in different parts of France, and particularly of the great cathedral of Paris. See also the following article.