https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo said:
Hugo's novel
Notre-Dame de Paris (
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) was published in 1831 and quickly translated into other languages across Europe. One of the effects of the novel was to shame the City of Paris into restoring the much-neglected
Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was attracting thousands of tourists who had read the popular novel. The book also inspired a renewed appreciation for pre-Renaissance buildings, which thereafter began to be actively preserved.
Another funny aspect of Notre Dame is that it's not only a Christian church but also covered in alchemy symbols. And Victor Hugo (just as most European artists, authors and philosophers) was very aware of it. The hunchback of Notre Dame has an entire chapter talking about alchemy, as well as several concepts that remind very much of alchemy teachings and symbolism (for example, Quasimodo dying on the skeleton of Esmeralda which may be the concept that men & women are two halves of a perfect being.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris#Iconography_—_the_"poor_people's_book" said:
Amid all the religious figures, some of the sculptural decoration was devoted to illustrating medieval science and philosophy. The central portal of the west façade is decorated with carved figures holding circular plaques with symbols of transformation taken from alchemy. The central pillar of the central door of Notre-Dame features a statue of a woman on a throne holding a scepter 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 metals into gold.
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And if you study alchemy you'll also learn that the symbol for gold is also the symbol for God, so the old concept of creating gold, is actually the idea of having human beings transcendent to a divine status. Which is a form of humanism represented by Sturm and Drang and Rationalism (Prometheus, for example, the rebellion against the Gods/Powers to promote mankind).
Freemasonry is also inspired/based on alchemy.
I'm not an expert, though, I just read a book about it once. And it's fascinating. Mostly as alchemy is from a time when people believed that God exists and that God created this world. The fascination of this particular view is that an alchemist can study God by studying the world, and by understanding the world, one understands God. Which is simply amazing if you think about it.
It was a time when everything was intriguing and significant.
I believe basically every author (classical literature) dabbled in alchemy and mystic at one point as the fascination lies in its esoteric aspect (religion) combined with science & philosophy. (Hugo, Blake, Joyce, Goethe, Hegel, Rimbaud, Dürer, Bosch etc. were all involved in alchemy or freemasonry and it all dates back to Paracelsus, Platon, Brahe, Copernicus and what not.)
It also needs to be said that one thing doesn't have to exclude another. I don't see why poverty should prevent from restoring Notre Dame. And many people who give for Notre Dame, may also give for other projects. It doesn't have to be exclusive of each other.
Personally, I find Notre Dame very important. It's not just Christianity but a symbol of the very heart of European culture & literature (i.e. people like Victor Hugo who wrote Les Misèrables branding the abuse of people, the cruelty of poverty and the violence of arbitrary rulers.) That's not the same as giving people bread, but from some angles it's more than that, it creates vision, gives people a moral compass, it creates what we are.
I don't like the concept that the material world is the only thing that matters. Art is important, too. In fact, it's extremely important. The moral status and future of a nation is always in accordance to how that nation treats its poets. (I think Walt Whitman said that, more or less).
Anyway, I thought it may be interesting to point this out, as this “cultural past” of Europe is mostly obscured and forgotten nowadays.
