Inside The $760M Restoration Of Notre Dame Cathedral

The spire of Notre Dame, crowned by a brand new golden rooster, regained its place in the Paris skyline last week.

As tourists and Parisians gathered outside the UNESCO-listed cathedral to admire the return of one of its most emblematic features — for now, still encased in scaffolding — the Notre Dame worksite remained in full swing. Nearly 500 craftspeople are busy with rebuilding efforts, working to ensure the Parisian landmark is ready for its grand reopening to the public less than a year from now.

“It’s fascinating to see how something of such historical value is being restored,” said Stephan Book, a tourist visiting Paris from Sweden with his daughter and 80-year-old father. “And the ambition to do it all in five years,” he added, “It’s like when Kennedy said (humans) were going to the moon.”

On a recent visit to the construction site, President Emmanuel Macron promised works were “on schedule” for Notre Dame to open to the public on December 8, 2024, five years and seven months after the fire that destroyed large parts of the 860-year-old building in April 2019.

“By the time the Olympic Games come around (in July), we expect to have un-scaffolded the upper part of the spire and completed most of the roofing, so that Parisians and visitors from all over the world can see just how close the cathedral is to reopening,” Philippe Jost of Rebuilding Notre Dame de Paris (the public body responsible for the conservation and restoration of the cathedral), told the French parliament on December 13.

Already, those admiring the gothic structure from the outside are excited by the prospect of being able to re-enter the cathedral.

“The first time I came to Paris was 60 years ago, then 40 years ago,” said Stephan’s father, Göran Book, who remembers entering Notre Dame on every one of his previous visits to Paris. “Now I’m 80,” he added. “If I’m still alive next year, I’ll have to come back to see the reopening.”

A monumental effort

According to Rebuilding Notre Dame de Paris, there are nearly 250 companies and art workshops across France tasked with “working on the cathedral’s renaissance.” This includes carpenters, stonemasons, scaffolders, sculptors, gilders, glassmakers and even organ builders, who are restoring the 8,000 pipes and 115 stops of Notre Dame’s great organ, the largest in France.

After the 2019 fire, the first two years of work were devoted to securing the building, completing project studies and awarding tenders. The restoration phase then officially began in September 2021.

In recent months, the most visible advances have been made on the restoration of the framework of the roof, the spire and the large upper galleries.

Alban Dubois, who works as a waiter in Cafe Panis, just across the street from Notre Dame, has been observing the daily progress from the windows of his workplace.

He was there, serving tables, on the day of the infamous fire, and remembers watching in shock as the flames grew larger and the windows of his restaurant became progressively hotter. “People gathered (in the restaurant) and looked on helplessly,” he said. “Some people were crying… It was all very sad.”

Now, Dubois looks forward to the cathedral reopening and predicts lots of people will stop by to pay it a visit. “Even though (Notre Dame) has been here for so many years, it’s going to be a bit like an inauguration,” he said.

According to Jost, 14 million visitors are expected to “flock to see the results of (the) restoration.”

Marking the 21st century

While Notre Dame’s original appearance will be restored, President Macron has also expressed a desire for our century to “have its place among the many others that feature in the works of this cathedral.”

Earlier this month, he announced a competition to allow contemporary artists to recreate six of the stained glass windows on the southern side of Notre Dame, in order to “mark this 21st century.”

In similarly commemorative fashion, the name of the French general who had been overseeing the reconstruction of Notre Dame before his death in a mountain accident earlier this year, was engraved in the wood of the spire. Jean-Louis Georgelin “will remain forever” part of Notre Dame, said Macron, who personally took part in the engraving process on December 8, the day that the cathedral’s oak spire regained its place.

The names of others who took part in the reconstruction of Notre Dame have also been made a permanent fixture of the new cathedral. A sealed tube was placed inside the golden rooster mounted atop the spire on December 16, containing a document listing the 2,000 names of those who have been involved in the works.

The cathedral spire’s previous rooster had been found, damaged among the rubble, the day after the fire. Inside it were the relics (the mortal remains) of Saint Denis and Saint Geneviève, as well as a fragment of Christ’s crown of thorns, all of which remained intact and have now been placed inside the new rooster, according to the Diocese of Paris.

The old rooster — alongside the six stained glass windows set to be replaced — will be housed in a new museum dedicated to Notre Dame, the opening of which was announced recently by Macron. “It will be a museum of art, a museum of history, a museum to describe the permanent construction site of Notre Dame de Paris,” he said.

The cost of rebuilding Notre Dame is expected to be approximately 700 million euros ($767 million). In total, 846 million euros ($928 million) were raised in donations from 340,000 donors in 150 countries, according to Rebuilding Notre Dame de Paris.

Jost has said that any donated money that isn’t spent on the reconstruction will likely be used to “benefit the cathedral” in other ways

https://www.cnn.com/

Notre Dame’s Rector: “15 Or 20 years” Needed For Restoration

PARIS (AP) — The rector of Notre Dame said Friday that the burned-out Paris cathedral and its esplanade could remain a building site for another “15 or 20 years.”

Rector Patrick Chauvet spoke to The Associated Press following Good Friday ceremonies, including venerating the “Crown of Thorns” at Notre Dame’s temporary liturgical base, the nearby church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois.

He added that: “I can guarantee that there’s work to do!”

In the days following the April 15, 2019, blaze that engulfed Paris’ Gothic gem, French President Emmanuel Macron set a five-year restoration deadline for 2024, when Paris is to host the Summer Olympics. But French officials quickly backpedaled Macron’s statement, conceding that it was unrealistic to complete the enormous project by that time.

The blaze also distributed vast amounts of toxic lead from the cathedral’s burned-out roof onto the site and nearby, complicating the clean-up work that came before restoration efforts could even begin.

Works planned include remodeling the cathedral’s esplanade, which before the blaze was visited every year by 20 million tourists.

Carpenters Impress Public With Medieval Techniques At Notre Dame

Carpenters put the skills of their Medieval colleagues on show on the plaza in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020, the day honoring European heritage, by reproducing for the public a section of the elaborate carpentry used when the edifice was built. The elaborate wooden beams went up in flames in a devastating April 2019 fire that also toppled the spire of the cathedral, now being renovated. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

 PARIS (AP) — With precision and boundless energy, a team of carpenters used medieval techniques to raise up — by hand — a three-ton oak truss Saturday in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, a replica of the wooden structures that were consumed in the landmark’s devastating April 2019 fire that also toppled its spire.

The demonstration to mark European Heritage Days gave the hundreds of people a first-hand look at the rustic methods used 800 years ago to build the triangular frames in the nave of Notre Dame de Paris.

It also showed that the decision to replicate the cathedral in its original form was the right one, said Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, who heads the cathedral’s reconstruction.

“It shows … firstly that we made the right choice in choosing to rebuild the carpentry identically, in oak from France,” Georgelin said in an interview. “Secondly, it shows us the ... method by which we will rebuild the framework, truss after truss.”

A debate over whether the new spire should have a futuristic design or whether the trusses should be made of fireproof cement like in the Cathedral of Nantes, which was destroyed in a 1972 fire, ended with the decision in July to respect Notre Dame’s original design and materials.

A total of 25 trusses are to be installed at an unknown date in the cathedral nave. Philippe Gourmain, a forestry expert working on the cathedral project, said the carpentry phase will not come before 2022.

“The problem of Notre Dame is not a carpentry problem. We have the wood. We know how to do it,” Gourmain said. “The big issue is regarding the stone.”

Some stones — which support the carpentry — were damaged by the fire and “it’s not so easy now” to find similar stone, he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants the cathedral reopened in 2024 in time for the Paris Olympic Games, a deadline that many experts have called unrealistic.

For the moment, the delicate task of dismantling melted scaffolding, which was originally erected to refurbish the now-toppled spire, continues. That job, started in early June, will be completed in October.

The soaring cathedral vaults are also being cleared of debris by 35 specialists on ropes. The organ with its 8,000 pipes was removed for repair in early August.

It is not yet known what technique will be used to create and install the wooden trusses.

The truss mounted for the weekend display is a replica of truss No. 7, more advanced that the first six trusses, which were “more primitive,” said Florian Carpentier, site manager for the team from Carpenters Without Borders team that felled the trees and used axes to cut the logs for the wooden frame. With rope cables and a rustic pulley system, the carpenters slowly pulled the truss they built in July from the ground where it was laid out.

“It’s a moment to see, ancestral techniques that last. There is the present and the past and it links us to our roots,” said Romain Greif, an architect who came with his family to watch the display. “It’s an event.”

In a final touch, once the No. 7 truss replica was raised on high, a carpenter shinnied up the wooden beams — to cheers — to tie an oak branch to the top of the triangular structure, a symbol of prosperity and a salute to the workers, a tradition still honoured in numerous European countries.

By ELAINE GANLEY

Notre Dame Cathedral To Be Rebuilt Without Modern Touches

PARIS (AP) — Notre Dame Cathedral will be rebuilt just the way it stood before last year’s devastating fire.

No swimming pool or organic garden on the roof of the medieval Paris monument, or contemporary glass spire, or other modern twists. And to stay historically accurate, it will again be built with potentially toxic lead.

That’s the verdict reached by French President Emmanuel Macron, the cathedral’s present-day architects and the general in charge of the colossal reconstruction project for one of the world’s most treasured landmarks.

Macron, who wants Notre Dame reopened in time for the 2024 Olympics, had initially pushed for a contemporary touch atop the cathedral, prompting eye-catching proposals from architects around the world.

But Macron came around to the traditionalists’ argument, and approved reconstruction plans for the 12th century monument that were presented Thursday, according to a statement from the state agency overseeing the project.

The plan includes recreating the 19th century spire designed by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc that collapsed in the fire and “favors fidelity to the monument’s form and a restoration of the cathedral in its latest state,” the statement said.

That means how Notre Dame was on the afternoon of April 15, 2019, before the fire broke out, consumed the roof and threatened the rose-windowed twin towers that keep the cathedral upright.

More than a year later, the structure remains unstable. It took nearly a year to clear out dangerous lead residue released in the fire and to get to the point where workers could start removing scaffolding that had been in place for a previous renovation effort. Actual reconstruction won’t start until next year.

The reconstruction plan presented Thursday says the project will replicate original materials “to guarantee the authenticity, harmony and coherence of this masterpiece of Gothic art.”

Those materials included tons of lead, which is raising concerns among health and environmental groups. Lead particles released during the fire forced schools in the area to close and prompted a lengthy, painstaking cleanup effort of the cathedral’s historic neighborhood on an island in the center of Paris.

Notre Dame Forecourt Opens To Public After Long Cleanup

PARIS (AP) — Notre Dame Cathedral’s forecourt is being opened up to the public for the first time since the devastating fire of April 15 last year.

The body overseeing the Gothic structure’s restoration issued a statement Sunday saying that the reopening was finally made possible after several deep clean operations took place to remove toxic lead dust from the large forecourt.

Dozens of tons of lead went up in flames during the fire, sending tons of poisonous lead dust onto the surrounding ground.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will join senior clergy on a visit to the area in the afternoon.

To protect public health, the site will continue to “be regularly cleaned and samples also taken” for monitoring and analysis.

The cathedral is still closed, and will be for several years during renovations.