A book can change the future?

When I was a little kid I started dreamed with France, I wanted to be a gypsy that met gargoyles and that met her true love, I wanted to dance and laughed at carnivals, I fell in love with Paris, because one Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The thing is I ought this to one writer that saved that marvelous place.

Well turns out a book can change the future, a book did change the future and that book is called Notre-Dame de Paris also known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The book was written by Victor Hugo in 1831. He started writing the book in 1829 to make people more aware about the importance and value of the know now as »Gothic» style, which at that time was considered as crude and barbaric at best, what he was trying to do was saving the Notre Dame from being demolished.

Notre Dame suffer a lot because since the french wanted to adapt the cathedral to the new Baroque standards, they smashed the stained glass, destroyed its tombs and build a new altar, they reconstructed and the interior was whitewashed, also ornaments, sculptures and gargoyles where removed because they’re considered tasteless, they removed everything related to religion and monarchy, they even destroyed the gallery of kings.

Victor Hugo was only 28 when he wrote the book, but he wrote it which such delicacy that Gothic architecture was viewed with a different light, he even attack all the indignities that the Cathedral suffer, which generated a spark on the readers, and gave the Notre Dame a second chance.

That second chance came with Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, a talented architect that has a deep knowledge in medieval building techniques; he worked to restore and preserve the wonders of Paris, but particularly Notre Dame, it was his centerpiece of his work. The reconstruction took twenty five years which returned the Cathedral to their glory, although in the Second war on the stained glass windows on the lower tier were hit, they were remade with a geometrical pattern but not with the old scenes of the bible.

And thanks Victor Hugo, and several adaptations of his work know Notre Dame is one of the visited tourist attractions around the globe with 14 millions visitors per year and I’m telling you Victor Hugo was right the beauty on Notre Dame can’t be compared, there is so much detail everywhere, plus you can see Paris the way Quasimodo did if you decide to go 387 steps up.