Flèche (architecture)
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A flèche is the name given to spires in Gothic architecture. In French, the word is applied to any spire, but in English it has the technical meaning of a spirelet or spike on the rooftop of a buildin
Flèche of Sainte-Chapelle, Île de la Cité, designed by Jean-Baptiste Lassus.
Flèche of St Michael's Castle, St Petersburg, designed by Vasily Bazhenov.
Model of the flèche of Notre-Dame de Paris made for Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1859) (Museum of Historic Monuments, Paris)
The Gothic Revival flèche on the St. Peter's Church of Leuven, Belgium.
Spire of Notre-Dame de Paris
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The Spire of Notre-Dame de Paris is located above the cross-section of the cathedral's transept. Notre-Dame de Paris has had three timber spires made of oak, known as flèches. The first was built betw
Flèche (architecture)
…and sculptural embellishments: tracery, crockets, and miniature buttresses serve to adorn the flèche. Flèches are often very tall: the Gothic Revival spire of Notre-Dame de Paris (1858–2019) by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was about 100 feet (30 m) before its destruction in the Notre-Dame de Paris fire, while the 16th century flèche…
The third spire in 2025
The entry of Isabella of Bavaria into Paris, from a miniature in Froissart's Chronicles, attributed to Philip of Mazerolles (c. 1470-1472)
The cathedral in the Pontifical Romain by Jean de Mauléon Bishop of Comminges (c. 1525-1530)
Notre-Dame without its spire in the 1850s (Édouard Baldus)