Harvard Catholic Forum Lecture

Caroline Bruzelius (Duke University), Creativity and Innovation at Notre Dame in Paris. This event also will be live-streamed; please register here to attend virtually.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, while under construction from the twelfth into the fourteenth centuries, was the hub of a creative outburst in philosophy, theology, literature, and music. This same spirit of creativity pervades the design and construction of the building itself, which served as a laboratory of architectural innovation. Professor Bruzelius, granted access to the upper parts of the structure during the recent restoration, presents new research from the studies she and her colleagues, both historians and materials scientists, made on the development of this magnificent structure.