Parvis Notre Dame, or John Paul II Square

Parvis Notre-Dame - place Jean-Paul-II is a square in Paris opposite Notre-Dame Cathedral, on its forecourt, which was named after the Pope and saint John Paul II in 2006. Located on the Île de la Cité, the square extends over the square in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral. It also features an archaeological crypt and several statues, including one of Charlemagne (Charlemagne et ses Leudes).

The square took on its current appearance between 1860 and 1870, as part of the transformation of Paris under the Second Empire.

In the 19th century, the remains of the crypt of Saint-Etienne Cathedral were excavated and then filled in.

In the early 1910s, an unsuccessful project called for a French-style garden to be laid out on the forecourt[12].

On October 11, 1914, during the First World War, the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral was hit by a German air raid.

Since September 3, 2006, the square has been known as “Parvis Notre-Dame - Place Jean-Paul-II” in honor of Pope John Paul II, who died on April 2, 2005. The change of name was the subject of a ceremony organized by Paris City Hall, attended by the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, the Archbishop of Paris Monseigneur André Vingt-Trois, the Apostolic Nuncio Monseigneur Fortunato Baldelli, and the Paris clergy. This change of name, by municipal decision of June 13, 2006, was not unanimously supported by the municipal majority, as it was deemed contrary to secularism.

In June 2022, the project by landscape architect Bas Smets was selected: in particular, it calls for the unification of the cathedral's surroundings through extensive planting and the development of the former parking lot into an interior promenade integrating visitor service activities and a new entrance to the crypt; work is scheduled for the period 2024-2027.

In front of the cathedral's main portal stood a patibular ladder, used to lift condemned prisoners to the gallows. This mark of the high justice of the bishop of Paris was replaced in 1767 by a carcanon, which disappeared in 1792. It was from this post that France's long-distance routes began. In 1924, a medallion was installed to mark the “zero point of France's roads”, the reference point from which distances between Paris and other cities are measured.