Notre Dame vs Empire State Building

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Notre-Dame de Paris (French: [n?t?? dam d? pa?i] (listen); meaning'Our Lady of Paris'), known simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral was consecrated to the Virgin Mary and considered to be among the best examples of French Gothic architecture. Its pioneering use of the rib vault and flying buttress, its enormous and vibrant rose windows, in addition to the naturalism and prosperity of its sculptural decoration set it apart from the previous Romanesque style. Major components which make Notre Dame stand out include its large historic organ and its immense church bells.The cathedral's construction began in 1160 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and was mostly complete by 1260, although it was modified frequently in the next centuries. In the 1790s, Notre-Dame suffered desecration during the French Revolution; much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. In the 19th century, the cathedral was the site of the coronation of Napoleon I and the funerals of several Presidents of the French Republic. Popular interest in the cathedral blossomed soon after the publication, in 1831, of Victor Hugo's book Notre-Dame de Paris (better known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). This led to a major restoration project between 1844 and 1864, supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The Allied liberation of Paris in 1944 was celebrated within Notre-Dame with the singing of the Magnificat. Beginning in 1963, the cathedral's façade was cleaned of centuries of soot and dirt. Another cleaning and restoration project was carried out between 1991 and 2000. The cathedral is one of the most widely recognized symbols of the city of Paris and the French state. As the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame comprises the cathedra of the Archbishop of Paris (Michel Aupetit). In 1805, Notre-Dame was given the honorary status of a minor basilica.

Approximately 12 million people visit Notre-Dame annually, making it the most visited monument in Paris. The cathedral was famous for its Lent sermons, founded by the Dominican Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire in the 1830s. In recent decades, a growing number have been awarded by leading public figures and state-employed professors. The cathedral has been progressively stripped of its original decoration and functions of art. Several notable examples of Gothic, Baroque, and 19th-century sculptures and a group of 17th- and early 18th-century altarpieces remain in the cathedral's collection. Some of the most important relics in Christendom, for example, Crown of Thorns, a sliver of the true cross and a nail from the true cross, are preserved at Notre-Dame. On 11 February 1931, Antonieta Rivas Mercado expired at the altar of Notre-Dame after shooting herself in the heart with a pistol stolen from her lover, Jose Vasconcelos.While undergoing renovation and restoration, the roof of Notre-Dame caught fire on the night of 15 April 2019. Burning for about 15 hours, the cathedral sustained serious damage, including the destruction of the flèche (the wood spirelet over the crossing) and the majority of the lead-covered wooden roof above the stone vaulted ceiling. Contamination of the site and the nearby environment resulted. After the fire, many proposals were made for modernizing the cathedral's design. But on 16 July 2019, the French Parliament passed a law requiring that it be rebuilt exactly as it appeared prior to the fire. Stabilizing the structure against potential collapse is expected to last until the end of 2020, with reconstruction beginning in 2021. The government of France expects the renovation can be completed by Spring 2024, in time for the opening of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Source: Wikipedia

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The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York .

It was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from 'Empire State', the nickname of the state of New York. The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet (380 m) and stands a total of 1,454 ft (443.2 m) tall, including its antenna. The Empire State Building stood as the world's tallest building until the building of the World Trade Center in 1970; after its collapse at the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Empire State Building was the city's tallest skyscraper until 2012. As of 2020, the building is the seventh-tallest building in nyc, the ninth-tallest finished skyscraper in the United States, the 48th-tallest on earth, and the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas. The website of the Empire State Building, located in Midtown South on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, was originally part of an early 18th-century farm. It was developed in 1893 as the site of the Waldorf--Astoria Hotel. In 1929, Empire State Inc. acquired the website and devised plans for a skyscraper there. The design for the Empire State Building was changed fifteen times until it was ensured to be the world's tallest building. Construction began on March 17, 1930, and the building opened thirteen and a half months afterward on May 1, 1931. Despite favorable publicity regarding the building's structure, because of the Great Depression and World War II, its owners failed to make a profit until the early 1950s. The building's Art Deco design, height, and observation decks have made it a popular attraction. Around 4 million tourists from around the world annually visit the building's 86th and 102nd floor observatories; an additional indoor observatory on the 80th floor opened in 2019. The Empire State Building is an American cultural icon: it has been featured in more than 250 TV shows and movies since the movie King Kong was released in 1933. A symbol of New York City, the tower has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was ranked first on the American Institute of Architects' List of America's Favorite Architecture in 2007. Additionally, the Empire State Building and its ground-floor inside were designated city landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1980, and were added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

Source: Wikipedia