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Among the many innovative church constructions in the Île-de-France during the twelfth century that immediately followed the ground-breaking new building of the abbey church of Saint-Denis, the high vaults in the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris mark a turning point – both in sheer dimensions and in their quality of execution as stone constructions. On the other hand, some solutions in design and construction that can be observed in these vaults remain unique within the dynamic development of Gothic vaulting in the great cathedrals built in the following years. On closer view it turns out that the general design of the vault as well as its construction details are hardly understood until now, mainly because they have been overlooked in a unifying perspective on Gothic architecture coined by the idealistic view of the Gothic Revival in the nineteenth century. Further, the particular relation between vault design and stereotomy needs to be clarified, and its significance needs to be understood.