[10] The birthplace of the new style was the Basilica of Saint-Denis in the Île-de-France, not far north of Paris where, in 1137, the Abbé Suger began the reconstruction of the Carolingian-era abbey church.

The flying buttresses at Amiens and Chartes were strengthened by an additional arch and with a supporting arcade, allowing even higher walls and more windows.

The new structural technologies allowed the enlargement of the transepts and the choirs at the east end of the cathedrals, creating the space for a ring of well-lit chapels.

An elaborate system of exterior columns and arches reduced the walls of the upper chapel to a thin framework for the enormous windows.

[15] Its characteristic features were more exuberant decoration, as the nobles and wealthy citizens of mostly northern French cities competed to build more and more elaborate churches and cathedrals.

Other new features included the arc en accolade, a window decorated with an arch, stone pinnacles and floral sculpture.

Notable examples of Flamboyant Gothic include the western facade of Rouen Cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes in Paris, both built in the 1370s; and the Choir of Mont Saint Michel Abbey (about 1448).

[16] The most famous examples of Gothic architecture are found in the Île-de-France and Champagne, but other French regions created their own original versions of the style.

The characteristic features of Norman Gothic were sharply pointed arches, lavish use of decorative molding, and walls pierced with numerous passages.

A fine example of Angevin Gothic is found in the medieval Saint Jean Hospital in Angers, which now contains the Musée Jean-Lurçat, a museum of contemporary tapestries.

Similarly, flamboyant town halls were found in Arras, Douai, and Saint-Quentin, Aisne, and across the border in Belgium in Brussels and Bruges.

[21] Gothic features also appeared in the elaborate residences built by the nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie in Paris and other large cities.

They thickened the walls and rebuilt the vault and in 1569 they completed a tower, 72 meters high, which from 1569 to 1573 made Beauvais Cathedral the tallest structure in the world.

[22] Beginning in the 1530s, the Flamboyant Gothic style of French religious and civil architecture also began to show the influence of the Italian Renaissance.

The Fontaine des Innocents, built by sculptor Jean Goujon to celebrate the entrance of Henry II into Paris in 1549, was the first Renaissance monument in the city.

During the French Revolution, Gothic churches were symbols of the old regime and became targets for the Revolutionaries; the cathedrals were nationalized, and stripped of ornament and valuables.

They remained as symbols of the rank of their noble occupants; the narrowing openings in the walls were often widened into the windows of bedchambers and ceremonial halls.

[25] In the 19th century, portions of the Gothic walls and towers of the Cité de Carcassonne were restored, with some modification, by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

The Basilica of St Denis had been stripped of its stained glass and monumental tombs, while the statues on the façade of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris had been beheaded and taken down.

In 1831, interest in Gothic architecture grew even greater following the popular success of the romantic novel Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo.

In 1832, Hugo wrote an article for the Revue des deux Mondes, which declared war against the "massacre of ancient stones" and the "demolishers" of France's past.

In October 1830, the position of Inspector of Historical Monuments had been created by the Interior Minister, François Guizot, a professor of history at the Sorbonne.

In 1835, the church of Saint Séverin in Paris was among the first to undergo restoration, followed in 1836 by Sainte-Chapelle, which had been turned into a storage house for government archives after the Revolution.

[citation needed] The Saint-Eugene-Sainte-Cécile in Paris by Louis-Auguste Boileau and Adrien-Louis Lasson (1854–1855) was the most innovative example of neo-Gothic; it combined a traditional Gothic design with a modern iron framework.

The ribs of this vault distributed the weight more equally to the four supporting pillars below and established a closer connection between the nave and the lower portions of the church walls, and between the arcades below and the windows above.

During the High Gothic period, with the development of the four-part rib vault and the flying buttress, the tribune was eliminated at Chartres and other new cathedrals, allowing taller windows and arcades.

[29] Another innovative feature of the French Gothic cathedral was the design of the portal or entry, which by long Christian tradition faced west.

[31] The Gothic cathedral was a liber pauperum, literally a "book for the poor", covered with sculpture illustrating biblical stories, for the vast majority of parishioners who were illiterate.

They were the rain spouts of the Cathedral; rainwater ran from the roof into lead gutters, then down channels on the flying buttresses to the mouths of the gargoyles.

The central pillar of the central door of Notre-Dame features a statue of a woman on a throne holding a sceptre in her left hand, and in her right hand, two books, one open (symbol of public knowledge), and the other closed (esoteric knowledge), along with a ladder with seven steps, symbolizing the seven steps alchemists followed in their scientific quest of trying to transform ordinary metal into gold.