Concept cathedral and “squaring the circle”:Interpreting the Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris as a standing hymn

Semiotics is used in the sphere of visual arts as a tool that helps reading the message included in a certain work.Gothic architecture,as an outcome of the rich cultural context of medieval tradition,where metaphysics,numbers and geometry were indispensable tools to symbolically manifest cosmological and theological concepts,is suggested as a good example for testing this approach in the field of architecture.In this paper,a semiotic reading for one of the most distinguished works of this era;i.e.,the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris,is introduced as a model for this methodology.Among many message included in the building,such as the functional or the technical messages,this is a trial to introduce a reading,i.e.,an interpretation,of what could be called rta hidden spiritual messase,The paper comes to a conclusion that the Gothic cathedral,as represented in Notre Dame de Paris,might be perceived as an extemalization of a standing hymn that was meant to send continuous appeals of protection to Heaven.