Notre-Dame de Paris, referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité in Paris, France. The cathedral was built from 1163 to 1260, and, in 1793, the Notre-Dame was converted into a "Temple of Reason" amid the French Revolution. Many of the cathedral's treasures were either destroyed or plundered during the Revolution, and the 28 statues of Biblical kings at the cathedral were mistaken for French kings and were beheaded. With the Concordat of 1801, Napoleon restored Notre-Dame to the Catholic Church. After the Napoleonic Wars, the cathedral was nearly demolished after falling into disrepair, but Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in 1831 to save the cathedral. In 1844, King Louis Philippe I ordered that the church be restored. The cathedral was spared destruction during the 1871 Paris Commune Revolt only because the Communards deduced that a fire at the cathedral would also destroy the neighboring Hotel-Dieu hospital. In 1963, on the 800th anniversary of the cathedral, the cathedral was cleared of soot and mud, restoring it to its original off-white color. On 8 September 2016, police foiled an attempt by the female ISIL sympathizers and converts to Islam Inès Madani, Ornella Gilligmann, Amel Sakaou, Sarah Hervouët, and Samia Chalel to destroy the cathedral in a car bombing. On 6 June 2017, ISIL sympathizer Farid Ikken was arrested after attacking a policeman with a hammer outside of the Notre-Dame. On 15 April 2019, Notre-Dame caught fire amid renovation work, and the cathedral collapsed at 7:50 PM, bringing down 750 tons of stone and lead. The cathedral was gradually rebuilt, and several statues and tombs were inadvertently unearthed and rediscovered in the process.
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