It is this December 8 that Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral once again welcomes the faithful and the public, after five years of completely unprecedented restoration.
On the evening of April 15, 2019, flames take over the magnificent building from the 12th century whose construction lasted more than two hundred years. Some 400 firefighters work all night in the furnace to prevent the worst. The fire was not completely extinguished until the next morning.
Nobody believed it, but in just five years, the restoration of the cathedral was completed. A work worthy of all superlatives which mobilized all the know-how to restore its splendor to this cultural, but also historical, building, associated with France and its influence in the world.
Record time…
In the aftermath of the tragedy, architectural experts estimate that it will take between twenty and twenty-five years of work to Notre Dame reborn from its ashes as the task is immense. The fall of the arrow pierced the vault, the framework is partly charred, the lead coverings have melted. The towers are narrowly saved. The cathedral is still standing, but its structure is considerably weakened.
“ We will rebuild this Notre-Dame Cathedral. All together. It’s a part of our French destiny », Declares French President Emmanuel Macron while the blaze is not yet extinguished. The Head of State has given himself five years to rebuild the building (property of the French State). Shortly after the fire, large fortunes, industrial groups and anonymous people demonstrated their generosity. In just 24 hours, pledges amounted to more than 800 million euros; nearly 340,000 donors across 150 countries around the world. The titanic project which is beginning will mobilize 250 companies of excellence, as well as more than 500 craftsmen, all selected according to their skills in each field (architects, engineers, archaeologists, conservators, scientists, carpenters, masons, stonemasons, carpenters, scaffolders, rope access technicians, restorers of paintings, sculptures or stained glass, organ builders, photographers and all the administrative teams….) An adventure that is as much human as it is technological.
The security phase lasts two years. Robots are used to clear the nave, where it is dangerous to move around, while workers clear debris from above the immense vault. Sensors are installed everywhere to track the slightest suspicious movement. Decontaminating the place is not an easy task either: 450 tonnes of lead partially vaporized into the atmosphere.
A large “tower” crane (80 meters), three mobile cranes and three nacelles to bend the flying buttresses and dismantle the damaged scaffolding. In turn, the chief architects of historic monuments, masons and stonecutters, examine, clear, diagnose and reinforce the vaults.
For months after the fire, a debate stirred minds: should we rebuild the cathedral identically or include “a contemporary architectural gesture”, in the words of the French president? Fifteen months later, Emmanuel Macron decides and perhaps reluctantly chooses the simplest option: that of rebuilding the Gothic jewel identically, thanks to the plans of the cathedral from the 19th century, all of which have been preserved.
The framework, forest of ancestral beams
Notre-Dame would not be Notre-Dame without its historic framework, the forest.” Before the fire, some beams still came from trees felled around 1160-1170. After the tragedy, more than 1,000 oaks were cut down in France to rebuild this tangle of beams supporting the roof of Notre-Dame. It is rebuilt identically and in the manner of the workers of the Middle Ages. The carpenters engrave the marks of the first builders on the beams: five semi-circles in the shape of crescent moons, engraved for the first time 800 years ago.
Each tree is selected in the forest according to its diameter, straightness and length to correspond to a specific part of the framework of the nave, the choir, the spire and the transept, with exceptional dimensions: 100 m long 13 m wide in the nave, 40 m in the transept, with a height of 10 m. After the installation of the frames, the installation of the roofs was carried out for the nave and the choir.
The arrow, an extraordinary construction site in itself
Since Viollet-le-Duc, the famous architect who restored the cathedral in the 19th century, never has a spire of such height, 96 meters, a true masterpiece of carpentry, been built. A 100 meter scaffolding is installed. THE lead ornaments have been reproduced identically, as well as the cross and the rooster (placed in 1859), symbol of the return of light after night for Christians. Still missing is part of the lead covering on its base and the statues of the apostles and saints, removed before the fire to allow their restoration, which will be reinstalled in the first half of 2025.
THE eight bellstwo of which suffered from the heat during the fire, were also restored and found their place in the north belfry of the cathedral.
A unique interior
No one alive today has ever known Notre-Dame so luminous, so magnified, since time, pollution, dirt, smoke from candles, had considerably darkened the place. The interior of the cathedral was completely cleaned, walls, vaults and decorations, bringing to light the blondness of the stone. The floor has regained the shine of the black and white checkerboard.
Notre-Dame-de-Paris Cathedral is lit by more than 120 glass roofs dating from the 13th to the 20th century. During the fire, the vault was able to fulfill its role as a shield by insulating more than 3,000 m² of glass surfaces and the firefighters managed to control the action of the water to preserve the entirety of the stained glass windows. They were also cleaned and found forgotten colors. By 2026, contemporary stained glass windows desired by Emmanuel Macron must replace five of the six bays on the south side of Notre-Dame (Seine side), built in the 19th century by Viollet-Le-Duc. These stained glass windows, like the others, were not damaged by the fire, but are very dirty.
The liturgical furniture is now in brown bronze, the 1,500 chairs have an openwork design in oak. And the organ regained its splendor: covered with lead dust, its 8,000 pipes were reassembled one by one. The great “mays” were also restored, these altar paintings commissioned each year from great artists, between 1630 and 1707 by the corporation of goldsmiths who offered them to the cathedral.
The successful challenge of the “construction site of the century”
Visitors to Notre-Dame will see nothing of it, but discreet pipes now run along the framework of the cathedral, ready to release millions of micro-droplets of water to “directly” fight fires and avoid the scenario of 2019. Unprecedented in a cathedral in France, this misting mechanism is the trump card that Notre-Dame adopted during its reconstruction to strengthen its fire protection system.
The “construction site of the century”, the largest restoration project in Europe, has held its course, despite the accidental death in August 2023 of General Georgelin. It was his right-hand man, Philippe Jost, who took over the reins a few weeks later. The reconstruction phase alone will have cost 550 million euros, out of 846 million donations. Now there remains a surplus of almost 150 million for additional exterior restoration work.
Notre-Dame welcomed 12 million visitors in 2017. The diocese and the public establishment expect to receive 14 to 15 million in 2025, after the reopening of this universal heritage building which continues to be a place of spectacular feats. In Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, nothing is wrong anymore. Ite missa est*.
Also readNotre-Dame de Paris: “A combination of factors made it possible to meet the five-year renovation deadline”
*Mass is said