Part Deaux

THE TOP TEN MOST GHOST HAUNTED PLACES IN FRANCE

By Lisa Lee Harp Waugh

In my recent travels around this very paranormal active haunted world, I do come upon some very real haunted locations to explore. And this is what true extreme ghost hunting is really all about. The investigations I conduct range from interviews with locals and tour guides as well as internet research. I hope you enjoy what I consider to be the Top Ten Most Haunted Locations in France.

6. Louvre

The Musée du Louvre or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre — is the largest national museum of France, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (neighbourhood). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet).

Many believe that thousands of lost and crazed starving and tortured souls still walk the many gallery's, looking for a way out. Many locals will tell you they also believe quite frankly that many of the great works of art on display have ghost attached to them.

the feelings that some of the art bring out to you have been known also to cause people to experience supernatural or paranormal phenomena experiences. Many a person has left the grand old palace with a feeling that a ghost is actually following them as they tour the great city.

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are still visible. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1672, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation's masterpieces.

The ghosts of the Louvre / Les fantômes du Louvre. The ghosts of the Louvre / Les fantômes du Louvre.

Orbs and an ectoplasmic mist in the Donjon Chateau Louvre photo sent to us by Diane Mckay.

The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being confiscated church and royal property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The size of the collection increased under Napoleon when the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon. After his defeat at Waterloo, many works seized by Napoleon's armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and gifts since the Third Republic, except during the two World Wars. As of 2008, the collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; and Prints and Drawings.

The Louvre gets its name from a Frankish word leovar or leower, signifying a fortified place, according to the French historian Henri Sauval (1623-1676). It was the actual seat of power in France, until Louis XIV moved to Versailles in 1682, bringing the government perforce with him; the Louvre remained the formal seat of government to the end of the Ancien Régime in 1789. Since then it has housed the celebrated Musée du Louvre as well as various government departments.

The Louvre complex may be divided into the “Old Louvre”: the medieval and Renaissance pavilions and wings surrounding the Cour Carrée, as well as the Grande Galerie (“Great Gallery”) extending west along the bank of the Seine; and the “New Louvre”: those 19th Century pavilions and wings extending along the north and south sides of the Cour Napoleon along with their extensions to the west (north and south of the Cour du Carrousel) which were originally part of the long-gone Palais des Tuileries (Tuileries Palace).

Some 51,615 sq m (555,000 sq ft) in the palace complex are devoted to public exhibition floor space. The complex is so vast that one could visit every day for a week and still not be able to give more than a cursory look to each of the exhibits

The Old Louvre occupies the site of the 12th-century fortress of King Philip Augustus, also called the Louvre. Its foundations are viewable in the basement level as the “Medieval Louvre” department. This structure was razed in 1546 by King Francis I in favor of a larger royal residence which was added to by almost every subsequent French monarch. King Louis XIV, who resided at the Louvre until his departure for Versailles in 1678, completed the Cour Carrée, which was closed off on the city side by a colonnade. The Old Louvre is a quadrilateral approximately 160 meters on a side consisting of 8 ailes (wings) which are articulated by 8 pavillons (pavilions). Starting at the northwest corner and moving clockwise, the pavillons consist of the following: Pavillon de Beauvais, Pavillion de Marengo, Northeast Pavilion, Central Pavilion, Southeast Pavilion, Pavillon des Arts, Pavillon du Roi, and Pavillon Sully (formerly, Pavillon de l’Horloge). Between the Pavillon du Roi and the Pavillon Sully is the Aile Lescot (“Lescot Wing”): built between 1546 and 1551, it is the oldest part of the visible external elevations and was important in setting the mold for later French architectural classicism. Between the Pavillon Sully and the Pavillon de Beauvais is the Aile Lemercier ("Lemercier Wing"): built between 1661 and 1663 by Louis XIII and Richelieu, it is a symmetrical extension of Lescot's wing in the same Renaissance style. With it, the last external vestiges of the medieval Louvre were demolished.

he New Louvre is the name often given to the wings and pavilions extending the Palace for about 500 meters westwards on the north (Napoléon I and Napoléon III) and on the south (Napoléon III) sides of the Cour Napoléon and Cour du Carrousel. It was Napoléon III who finally connected the Tuileries Palace with the Louvre in the 1850s, thus finally achieving the Grand Dessein “(Great Design”) originally envisaged by Henri IV in the 16th Century. This consummation only lasted a few short years, however, as the Tuileries was burned in 1871 and finally razed completely in 1882.

The northern limb of the new Louvre consists (from east to west) of three great pavilions along the Rue de Rivoli: the Pavillon de la Bibliotheque, Pavillon de Rohan and Pavillon de Marsan. On the inside (court side) of the Pavillon de la Bibliotheque are three pavilions; Pavillon Colbert, Pavillon Richelieu and Pavillon Turgot; these pavilions and their wings define three subsidiary Courts, from east to west: Cour Khorsabad, Cour Puget and Cour Marly.

The southern limb of the New Louvre consists (from east to west) of five great pavilions along the Quai Francois Mitterand (and Seine bank): the Pavillon de la Lesdiguieres, Pavillon des Sessions, Pavillon de la Tremoille, Pavillon des Etats and Pavillon de Flore. As on the north side, three inside (court side) pavilions (Pavillon Daru, Pavillon Denon and Pavillon Mollien) and their wings define three more subsidiary Courts: Cour du Sphinx, Cour Viconti and Cour Lefuel.

For simplicity, on museum tourist maps, the New Louvre north limb, the New Louvre south limb, and the Old Louvre are designated as the “Richelieu Wing”, the “Denon Wing” and the “Sully Wing, respectively. This allows the casual visitor to avoid (to some extent) becoming totally mystified at the bewildering array of named wings and pavilions.

The Pavillon de Flore and the Pavillon de Marsan, at the westernmost extremity of the Palace (south and north limbs, respectively), were destroyed when the Third Republic razed the ruined Tuileries, but were subsequently restored beginning in 1874. The Flore then served as the model for the renovation of the Marsan.

A vast underground complex of offices, shops, exhibition spaces, storage areas, and parking areas, as well as an auditorium, a tourist bus depot, and a cafeteria, was constructed underneath the Louvre’s central courtyards of the Cour Napoléon and the Cour du Carrousel for Francois Mitterand’s “Grand Louvre” Project (1981-2002). The ground-level entrance to this complex was situated in the centre of the Cour Napoléon and is crowned by the prominent steel-and-glass pyramid (1989) designed by the American architect I.M. Pei.

The Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, oil on panel, 1503-19, probably completed while the artist was at the court of Francis I. Many say this face and the smile haunts them. To see a larger image double click on the image above.

The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective fiction novel written by American author Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon as he investigates a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discovers a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus Christ of Nazareth having been married to and fathering a child with Mary Magdalene.

The title of the novel refers to, among other things, the fact that the murder victim is found in the Denon Wing of the Louvre, naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a pentacle drawn on his stomach in his own blood.

The novel has provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Magdalene's role in the history of Christianity. The book has been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as a dishonest attack on the Roman Catholic Church. It has also been criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracy.

The book is a worldwide bestseller that had 60.5 million copies in print by May 2006 and that has been translated into 44 languages. Combining the detective, thriller, and conspiracy fiction genres, it is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon, the first being his 2000 novel Angels & Demons. In November 2004 Random House published a Special Illustrated Edition with 160 illustrations. In 2006 a film adaptation was released by Sony's Columbia Pictures.

Fortress

The Palais du Louvre was originally constructed as a fortress, built in the 12th century by King Philippe Auguste along with the City's first enclosure wall to defend the banks of the Seine river against invaders from the north.[1] The fortress had at its center a cylindrical tower: the Donjon, or the Keep. (Archaeological discoveries of the original fortress are now part of the Medieval Louvre exhibit in the Sully wing of the museum.)

Philippe Auguste's fortress of 1190 was not a royal residence but a sizable arsenal comprising a moated quadrilateral (seventy-eight by seventy-two meters) with round bastions at each corner, and at the center of the north and west walls. Defensive towers flanked narrow gates in the south and east walls. At the center of this complex stood a keep, the Grosse Tour (fifteen meters in diameter and thirty meters high). Two inner buildings abutted the outer walls on the west and south sides.

Royal residence

The Louvre was renovated frequently through the Middle Ages. Under Louis IX in the mid-1200s, the Louvre became the home of the royal treasury. The castle soon gained a dual function: in addition to its protective role, it became one of the residences of the king and the court, along with the chateau de Vincennes, the Hotel Saint-Pol in the Marais and the palace of the Île de la Cité.

The fortress was enlarged and beautified in the 14th century by Charles V, making it the most celebrated royal residence in Europe of its time. Charles V began the enlargement of the Louvre in 1358, but his work was ruined in the course of the Hundred Years War and demolished in the 1500s by François I, to make room for a new structure built in the Renaissance style.

Renaissance period

Beginning in 1546, after returning from his captivity in Spain, King Francis I of France employed architect Pierre Lescot and sculptor Jean Goujon to remove the keep and modernize into a Renaissance style palace.[3][4] Lescot had previously worked on the châteaux of the Loire Valley and was adopted as the project architect. The new plan consisted of a square courtyard, with the main wing separated by a central staircase, and the two wings of the sides comprising a floor. Lescot added a ceiling to King Henry II's bedroom (Pavillon du Roi) that departed from the traditional beamed style, and installed the Salle des Caryatides, which featured sculpted caryatids based on Greek and Roman works. Art historian Anthony Blunt refers to Lescot's work "as a form of French classicism, having its own principles and its own harmony". Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvre's holdings; his acquisitions included Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

The death of Francis I in 1547, however, interrupted the project. The architect Androuet du Cerceau also worked on the Louvre.

In 1564 Catherine de' Medici directed the building of a château to the west called the Palais des Tuileries, facing the Louvre and the surrounding gardens. The Palace closed off the western end of the Lourve courtyard. Catherine then took over the restoration of the entire palace. Her architect Philibert de l'Orme began the project, and was replaced after his death in 1570 by Jean Bullant.

The Bourbons took control of France in 1589. During his reign (1589-1610), Henry IV began his "Grand Design" to remove remnants of the medieval fortress, to increase the Cour Carrée's area, and to create a link between the Palais des Tuileries and the Louvre. The link was completed via the Grande Galerie by architects Jacques Androuet de Cerceau and Louis Métezeau.

A ghost in the long halls of the Louvve or just anoter artsy anomalous image? Shadow person photo sent to us by Gary Masse.

More than a quarter of a mile long and one hundred feet wide, this huge addition was built along the bank of the Seine; at the time of its completion it was the longest building of its kind in the world. Henry IV, a promoter of the arts, invited hundreds of artists and craftsmen to live and work on the building's lower floors. (This tradition continued for another 200 years until Napoleon III ended it.)

In the early 1600s, Louis XIII razed the north wing of the medieval Louvre and replaced it with a continuation of the Lescot wing. His architect, Jacques Lemercier, designed and completed the wing by 1639 (subsequently known as the Pavillon de l'Horloge, after a clock was added in 1857.)

The Richelieu Wing was also built by Louis XIII, the building first being opened to the public as a museum on November 8, 1793 during the French Revolution.[1] Louis XIII (1610-1643) completed the wing now called the Denon Wing, which had been started by Catherine de Medici in 1560. Today it has been renovated, as a part of the Grand Louvre Renovation Programme.

n 1659, Louis XIV instigated a phase of construction under architects Le Vau and André Le Nôtre, and painter Charles Le Brun. Le Vau oversaw the decoration of the Pavillon du Roi, the Grand Cabinet du Roi, a new gallery to parallel the Petite Gallerie, and a chapel. Le Nôtre redesigned the Tuileries garden in the French style, which had been created in 1564 by Catherine de' Medici in the Italian style; and Le Brun decorated of the Galerie d'Apollon. A committee of architects proposed on Perrault’s Colonnade; the edifice was begun in 1668 but not finished until the 19th century.

Commissioned by Louis XIV, architect Claude Perrault's eastern wing (1665-1680), crowned by an uncompromising Italian balustrade along its distinctly non-French flat roof, was a ground-breaking departure in French architecture. His severe design was chosen over a design provided by the great Italian architect Bernini, who had journeyed to Paris specifically to work on the Louvre. Perrault had translated the Roman architect Vitruvius into French. Now Perrault's rhythmical paired columns form a shadowed colonnade with a central pedimented triumphal arch entrance raised on a high, rather defensive base, in a restrained classicizing baroque manner that has provided models for grand edifices in Europe and America for centuries. The Metropolitan Museum in New York, for one example, reflects Perrault's Louvre design. In 1678 the royal residence moved to Versaille and the Palais du Louvre became an art gallery.

In 1871 the Tuileries Palace was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune. The western end of the Louvre courtyard has remained open since, forming the Cour d'honneur. Continued expansion and embellishment of the Louvre continued through 1876.

In 1983, French President François Mitterrand proposed the Grand Louvre plan to renovate the building and move the Finance Ministry out, allowing displays throughout the building. American architect I. M. Pei was awarded the project and proposed a modernist glass pyramid for the central courtyard. The pyramid and its underground lobby were inaugurated on 15 October 1988. Controversial at first, it has become an accepted Parisian architectural landmark. The second phase of the Grand Louvre plan, La Pyramide Inversée (The Inverted Pyramid), was completed in 1993. As of 2002, attendance had doubled since completion.

Official site of the Louvre Museum

7. Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris ('Our Lady of Paris' in French) s a Gothic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the "cathedra", or official chair, of the Archbishop of Paris, André Cardinal Vingt-Trois. Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in the world. It was restored and saved from destruction by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, one of France's most famous architects. The name Notre Dame means "Our Lady" in French, and is frequently used in the names of Catholic church buildings in Francophone countries.

Timeline of construction

* 1160 Maurice de Sully (named Bishop of Paris), orders the original cathedral to be demolished.
* 1163 Cornerstone laid for Notre Dame de Paris — construction begins.
* 1182 Apse and choir completed.
* 1196 Bishop Maurice de Sully dies.
* c.1200 Work begins on western façade.
* 1208 Bishop Eudes de Sully dies. Nave vaults nearing completion.
* 1225 Western façade completed.
* 1250 Western towers and north rose window completed.
* c.1245–1260s Transepts remodelled in the Rayonnant style by Jean de Chelles then Pierre de Montreuil
* 1250–1345 Remaining elements completed

Notre Dame de Paris was one of the first Gothic cathedrals, and its construction spanned the Gothic period. Its sculptures and stained glass show the heavy influence of naturalism, unlike that of earlier Romanesque architecture.

Notre Dame de Paris was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress (arched exterior supports). The building was not originally designed to include the flying buttresses around the choir and nave. After the construction began and the thinner walls (popularized in the Gothic style) grew ever higher, stress fractures began to occur as the walls pushed outward. In response, the cathedral's architects built supports around the outside walls, and later additions continued the pattern.

The cathedral suffered desecration during the radical phase of the French Revolution in the 1790s, when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. Many believe this is when many of the haunting's date back to. From the ghosts of Kings to conquers the location is deemed one of the most haunted must see places to visit.

During the 19th century, an extensive restoration project was completed, returning the cathedral to its previous state.

In 1160, because the church in Paris had become the "parish church of the kings of Europe", Bishop Maurice de Sully deemed the previous Parisian cathedral, St Stephen's (which had been founded in the 4th century) unworthy of its lofty role, and had it demolished shortly after he assumed the title of Bishop of Paris. As with most foundation myths, this account needs to be taken with a pinch of salt; archeological excavations in the 20th century suggested that the Merovingian Cathedral replaced by de Sully was itself a massive structure, with a five-aisled nave and a facade some 36m across. It seems likely therefore that the faults with the previous structure were exaggerated by the Bishop to help justify the rebuilding in a newer style. According to legend, de Sully had a vision of a glorious new cathedral for Paris, and sketched it in the dirt outside of the original church. To begin the construction, the bishop had several houses demolished and had a new road built in order to transport materials for the rest of the cathedral.

Construction began in 1163, during the reign of Louis VII, and opinion differs as to whether Maurice de Sully or Pope Alexander III laid the foundation stone of the cathedral. However, both were at the ceremony in question. Bishop de Sully went on to devote most of his life and wealth to the cathedral's construction. Construction of the choir took from 1163 until around 1177 and the new High Altar was consecrated in 1182 (it was normal practice for the eastern end of a new church to be completed first - that way a temporary wall could be erected at the west of the choir, allowing to chapter to use it without interruption while the rest of the building slowly took shape.) After Bishop Maurice de Sully's death in 1196, his successor, Eudes de Sully (no relation) oversaw the completion of the transepts and pressed ahead with the nave, which was nearing completion at the time of his own death in 1208. By this stage, the western facade had also been laid out, though it was not completed until around the mid 1240's

In 1548, rioting Huguenots damaged features of the cathedral, considering them idolatrous. During the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV, the cathedral underwent major alterations as part of an ongoing attempt to modernize cathedrals throughout Europe. Tombs and stained glass windows were destroyed. The north and south rose windows were spared this fate, however.

Significant Notre Dame de Parisevents

* 1185 — Heraclius of Caesarea calls for the Third Crusade from the still-incomplete cathedral.
* 1239 — The Crown of Thorns is placed in the cathedral by St. Louis during the construction of Sainte-Chapelle.
* 1302 — Philip the Fair opens the first States-General.
* December 16, 1431 — Henry VI of England is crowned King of France.
* 1450 — Wolves of Paris trapped and are killed on the steps of the Cathedral.
* November 7, 1455 — Isabelle Romée, the mother of Joan of Arc, petitions a papal delegation to overturn her daughter's conviction for heresy.
* April 24, 1558 — Mary I of Scotland is married to the Dauphin François (later François II of France), son of Henry II of France.
* August 18, 1572 — Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France) marries Marguerite de Valois.
* September 10, 1573 — The Cathedral was the site of a vow made by Henri de Valois following the interregnum of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that he would both respect traditional liberties and the recently passed religious freedom law.
* December 2, 1804 — the coronation ceremony of Napoléon I and his wife Joséphine, with Pope Pius VII officiating.
* 1909 — Joan of Arc is beatified.
* May 16, 1920 — Joan of Arc is canonized.
* 1900 — Louis Vierne is appointed Organist of Notre-Dame de Paris after a heavy competition (with judges including Charles-Marie Widor) against the 500 most talented organ players of the era. On June 2, 1937 he dies at the cathedral organ (as was his life-long wish) as he is nearing the end of his final concert held at Notre Dame.
* August 26, 1944 — The Te Deum Mass takes place in the cathedral to celebrate the liberation of Paris. (According to some accounts the Mass was interrupted by sniper fire from both the internal and external galleries.)
* November 12, 1970 — The Requiem Mass of General Charles de Gaulle is held.
* June 6, 1971 - Philippe Petit surreptitiously strings a wire between the two towers of Notre Dame and tight-rope walks across it. Petit would later perform similar act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
* May 31, 1980 — After the Magnificat of this day, Pope John Paul II celebrates Mass on the parvis in front of the cathedral.
* January 1996—The Requiem Mass of François Mitterrand is held.
* August 10, 2007 — The Requiem Mass of Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger, archbishop emeritus of Paris, is held.

The French architect and writer E.-E. Viollet-le-Duc brilliantly restored the Sainte-Chapelle (1840–67) and the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris (1845–64).

Official site of Notre Dame de Paris

The cathedral is renowned for its Lent sermons founded by the famous Dominican Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire in the 1840s. In recent years, however, an increasing number have been given by leading public figures and state-employed academics.

In 1793, during the French Revolution, the cathedral was rededicated to the Cult of Reason, and then to the Cult of the Supreme Being. During this time, many of the treasures of the cathedral were either destroyed or plundered. The statues of biblical kings of Judah (erroneously thought to be kings of France) were beheaded. Many of the heads were found during a 1977 excavation nearby and are on display at the Musée de Cluny. For a time, Lady Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary on several altars. The cathedral's great bells managed to avoid being melted down. The cathedral also came to be used as a warehouse for the storage of food.

A restoration program was initiated in 1845, overseen by architects Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The restoration lasted 25 years and included the construction of a flèche (a type of spire) as well as the addition of the chimeras on the Galerie des Chimères. Viollet le Duc always signed his work with a bat, the wing structure of which most resembles the Gothic vault (see Roquetaillade castle).

In 1871, during the period of the Paris Commune, the cathedral was nearly set alight: some records suggest that the rebels even went so far as to set fire to a mound of chairs within the building. Whether that was so or not, the cathedral survived the Commune period essentially unscathed.

In 1939, during World War II, it was feared that German bombers could destroy the windows; as a result, on September 11, 1939, they were removed and then restored at the end of the war.

In 1991, a major program of maintenance and restoration was initiated, which was intended to last 10 years but is still in progress as of 2009, the cleaning and restoration of old sculptures being an exceedingly delicate matter.

Over the construction period, numerous architects worked on the site, as is evidenced by the differing styles at different heights of the west front and towers. Between 1210 and 1220, the fourth architect oversaw the construction of the level with the rose window and the great halls beneath the towers. The most signifiant change in design came in the mid 13th century, when the transepts were remodelled in the latest Rayonnant style; in the late 1240's Jean de Chelles added a gabled portal to the North transept topped off by a spectacular rose window. Shortly afterwards (from 1258) Pierre de Montreuil executed a similar scheme on the South transept. Both these transept portals were richly embellished with sculpture; the south portal features scenes from the lives of St Stephen and of various local saints, while the north portal featured the infancy of Christ and the story of Theophilus in the tympanum, with a highly influential statue of the Virgin and Child in the trumeau.

Statues of real monsters, half-man and half-beast. These demon looking creatures carved out of stone are called gargoyles. They are one of the many eerie stone figures that adorn the gutters of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

Gargoyle comes from a Latin word, meaning gullet or drain. That's what the strange looking creatures are, they're drainpipes. Each grotesque figure has a passageway inside that carries rainwater from the roof and out through the gargoyle's mouth. From the top of the cathedral's towers the gargoyles have a magnificent view of the city. Many say they are very haunted and sometimes they even move or will spit in the eye of the soon to be damned.

The term originates from the French gargouille, originally "throat" or "gullet";[1] cf. Latin gurgulio, gula, and similar words derived from the root gar, "to swallow", which represented the gurgling sound of water (e.g., Spanish garganta, "throat"; Spanish gárgola, "gargoyle").

A chimera, or a grotesque figure, is a sculpture that does not work as a waterspout and serves only an ornamental or artistic function. These are also usually called gargoyles in laymen's terminology,[1] although the field of architecture usually preserves the distinction between gargoyles (functional waterspouts) and non-waterspout grotesques.

A local legend that sprang up around the name of St. Romanus ("Romain") (AD 631–641), the former chancellor of the Merovingian king Clotaire II who was made bishop of Rouen, relates how he delivered the country around Rouen from a monster called Gargouille or Goji, having the creature captured by the only volunteer, a condemned man. The gargoyle's grotesque form was said to scare off evil spirits so they were used for protection. In commemoration of St. Romain the Archbishops of Rouen were granted the right to set a prisoner free on the day that the reliquary of the saint was carried in procession.

Many medieval cathedrals included gargoyles and chimeras. The most famous examples are those of Notre Dame de Paris. Although most have grotesque features, the term gargoyle has come to include all types of images. Some gargoyles were depicted as monks, or combinations of real animals and people, many of which were humorous. Unusual animal mixtures, or chimeras, did not act as rainspouts and are more properly called grotesques. They serve more as ornamentation, but are now synonymous with gargoyles.

Many medieval cathedrals included gargoyles and chimeras. The most famous examples are those of Notre Dame de Paris. Although most have grotesque features, the term gargoyle has come to include all types of images. Some gargoyles were depicted as monks, or combinations of real animals and people, many of which were humorous. Unusual animal mixtures, or chimeras, did not act as rainspouts and are more properly called grotesques. They serve more as ornamentation, but are now synonymous with gargoyles.

Both ornamented and unornamented water spouts projecting from roofs at parapet level were a common device used to shed rainwater from buildings until the early eighteenth century. From that time, more and more buildings employed downpipes to carry the water from the guttering at roof level to the ground and only very few buildings using gargoyles were constructed. In 1724, the London Building Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain made the use of downpipes compulsory on all new construction.

There are five bells at Notre Dame. The great bourdon bell, Emmanuel, is located in the South Tower, weighs just over 13 tons, and is tolled to mark the hours of the day and for various occasions and services. There are four additional bells on wheels in the North Tower, which are swing chimed. These bells are rung for various services and festivals. The bells were once rung manually, but are currently rung by electric motors. The bells also have external hammers for tune playing from a small clavier

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GREAT TRUTHS THAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM HUNTING FOR REAL GHOSTS: BY THE REAL GHOSTMAN Real Ghost Hunting The World's Most Haunted Places Questionable Danger THE TEN TOP "BESTSELLER" CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL BOOKS SUMMER 2009 CONGRADULATIONS TO THE TOP TEN BEST MOST HAUNTED PARANORMAL TALK RADIO SHOWS ~ BROADBAND - PODCAST - INTERNET RADIO 2009 - 2010 THE TEN "BESTSELLING" VAMPIRE BOOKS OF 2009 THE TEN MOST HAUNTED "BESTSELLER" PARANORMAL BOOKS SUMMER 2009 "THE TOP TEN MOST SOUGHT AFTER GHOST HUNTED, PARANORMAL INVESTIGATED AND SEARCHED AFTER REAL SCARIEST GHOSTS IN THE WORLD" DARK FORCE - THE TERRIFYING AND TRAGIC STORY OF THE BEAN FAMILY - Interview of William Bean, Jr. by Dyan Garris Paranormal Radio REVIEWS BY REAP DASH BEARDSLEY "The Most Haunted Man In Texas" Real Ghosts And Their Opinions On Family and Funerals “MYSTERIOUS JOURNEYS” IN GETTYSBURG BY MARK NESBITT DEVIL ROAD: DEVIL ROADS WHERE THE REAL EVIL AWAITS... DAVE AND TOM JONES 20 QUESTIONS - KAPS Paranormal Radio show A Quick Lesson in Hypnosis by Ms. Macabre "SEEING THE REAL GOAT HILL LIGHTS" Alexis Cohen's Ghost came and told me that she was dead! RESEARCHING THE MOST HAUNTED PLACES AND THINGS IN THE WORLD Unique New Ghost Hunting Equipment: For Actual Communicating with the Dead GHOSTS DO SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS: USING FRANK'S BOX ~ JUST CALL THEM ACTUAL TWITTERS FROM THE DEAD. Richard Trenton Chase: The Vampire of Sacramento ~ Is It Paranormal? OR DID HIS VICTIM PAINT HIS FACE IN HER OWN BLOOD? WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES! "REAL TRUE VAMPIRE ~ VAMPIRE TALES AND SECRET TRUTHS FINALLY ALL REVEALED -- by Lisa Lee Harp Waugh THE TRUE REAL STORY OF THE MARSHALL, TEXAS NECROMANCER Recession? Not in the world of Real Ghosts and the Paranormal! THE TRUE STORY OF THE MARSHALL, TEXAS VOODOO ZOMBIE QUEEN ... And of her many tall tales. By Lisa Lee Harp Waugh REAL VAMPIRES, NIGHT STALKERS, AND CREATURES FROM THE DARKSIDE BY BRAD STEIGER HOT PARANORMAL TOPICS: HAUNTED AMERICA TOURS REAL PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS: "People need to do their own paranormal research and not just believe what they read." Séance: An Adventure In Ghost Hunting REAL PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS: "If Its Paranormal, Always Expect Skepticism" HAUNTED DOLLS: "How To Tell If A Doll Is Really Haunted" How can I tell if you, your House, your home and your life are really haunted? "PARANORMAL DOWN TIME" ~ Is there such a thing? "THE GREAT PARANORMAL ESCAPE" ~ HOSTING A REAL PARANORMAL WEBNAR EVENT! Ghost Walk is proud to be chosen to host " The Doll House Cam" in association with Knight Paranormal Investigation. NEW JERSEY BIGFOOT - Includes Nancy Bradley's Personal Bigfoot Photo. TOP TEN HAUNTED WEB SITES YOU NEED TO VISIT! Cryptids Real Cryptozoology: Even More Evidence Is Still Out There! Including "Cryptozoology". HAUNTED: HAUNTED. ~ HAUNTED? ~ HAUNTED! REAL GHOST PHOTOS OF THE "PARANORMAL LANDSCAPE" 'Real Ghost Photos' Can Or Will They Ever Be Really Fully Explained? ZOMBIE ROAD WHERE THE LIVING FEAR TO WALK! If you believe in Real Ghosts, Bigfoot, Chupacabras, Mothman, Sea Monsters, Aliens and UFO's... You need to read this Today! The 2009 Top Ten Most Haunted Web Sites DO YOU THINK YOU MISSED A HAUNTED OR PARANOMAL ARTICLE PLEASE VISIT HERE NOW! NEW FEATURED ARTICLES Haunted Submissions Have a photograph or image or story of interest to Haunted America Tours visitors? Please visit this page. NEW GHOST PHOTOS ADDED TO GHOST GALLERY LARGE IMAGES FOR YOU TO BROWSE PLEASE VISIT HERE NOW! Also see: THE BEST GHOST PHOTOS OF THE YEAR 2008     Book The Real Things You Want To Do Worldwide! We offer over 5,500 sightseeing tours and activities in over 400 destinations Please visit here to learn more now!   There is more to the paranormal world then what you see! Please search our site! 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