Notre-Dame: story of a resurrection

April 15, 2019 • A fire immediately followed by a promise

At 6:50 p.m., a plume of smoke escaped from the framework of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral. At nightfall, a blaze ignited the sky over the Île de la Cité, and an hour after the fire began, the spire of the cathedral collapsed, taking with it a span of the nave. At 11 p.m., the transept crossing is nothing more than a gaping hole. It was only mid-morning the next day that the firefighters, who fought the flames all night, were able to declare it extinguished. Just a few hours after the fire, the President of the Republic made a commitment: the cathedral will be rebuilt within five years. The investigation carried out by the Paris public prosecutor’s office to find out the causes of the fire will have accompanied the construction site over these five years, and will soon deliver its results in the form of a 3D modeling of the disaster. The possibility of arson has been formally ruled out.

April 24, 2019 • A bill to regulate generosity

100 million euros promised by François Pinault, then 200 million by Bernard Arnault, as much by the Bettencourt family: the day after the fire, the reaction of certain great French fortunes was immediate to save the burned cathedral, and a philanthropic competition took place. installed, bringing in its wake a wave of donations large and small. Multinationals and SMEs, individuals and local authorities, French and foreign donors are flocking, and three days after the disaster, the press is already announcing a total donation pledge of 850 million euros. As of April 24, a bill is tabled to open a national subscription. With its adoption on July 29, all of the promised amounts can be converted into real donations.

July 9, 2020 • Emmanuel Macron decides for an identical reconstruction

With the remains of the framework still smoking, proposals are already coming in to rebuild the cathedral. The architects Norman Foster, Jean-Michel Wilmotte and the Flemish artist Wim Delvoye offer their services to design a modern reinterpretation of the elements lost in the fire. Emmanuel Macron also opens up the possibility of a “architectural gesture” during a speech. For a year, the debate animated the world of architecture and heritage, suspended on the promise of the Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, to launch an architectural competition. Those who dream of a glass roof for Notre-Dame, like the Godart + Roussel agency, are opposed by the defenders of an identical reconstruction, who include in their ranks Jean Nouvel, Valode & Pistre, and especially the chief architect of Historical Monuments responsible for the restoration of the cathedral, Philippe Villeneuve. It is the President of the Republic who decides, in July, at the end of a meeting of the National Commission for Heritage and Architecture: Notre-Dame will find the spire of Viollet-le-Duc and its 13th century framework, rebuilt identically.

November 24, 2020 • The damaged scaffolding is removed

200 tonnes of steel, 40,000 different parts, all perched 40 meters high… The impressive structure built in 2018 to restore the spire has become a forest of molten metal, miraculously holding above the crossing of the transept. To dismantle this extraordinary scaffolding, it is necessary to call on double the ingenuity that its elevation will have required: scanned, scrutinized in its slightest movements, the giant is taken apart piece by piece for eight months. A year and a half after the fire, the cathedral is finally free of its strange crown, paving the way for the diagnosis of the damaged vaults and the security project, which will end a year later, in September 2021.

March 17, 2021 • Sorting of rubble ends on the square

What to do with the charred remains of a 13th century cathedral? To answer this question, the Historic Monuments Research Laboratory (LRMH) and the regional archeology service are joining forces and setting up a protocol. For a year and a half, heritage professionals – assisted by their colleagues from Inrap and C2RMF – will see all the debris produced by the fire pass onto their table, installed in the square in front of the cathedral. Wood, stone, metal, the elements cleared from the building are patiently sorted, photographed and inventoried. Today they constitute a unique material library in the world, preserved by the Drac (regional directorate of cultural affairs) Île-de-France, and an unexpected object of study for the scientific project carried out by the Ministry of Culture on the cathedral.

March 25, 2022 • Excavations extended to reveal the rood screen

The extent of the discoveries brought to light by Inrap archaeologists at the crossroads of the transept has still not, in 2024, been truly understood by the general public. But while the trowels are still working to uncover the fragments of the 13th century rood screen, the public establishment responsible for the restoration requests a halt to the excavations, on the grounds that they delay the installation of the scaffolding. It took the intervention of Roselyne Bachelot, then Minister of Culture, for archaeologists to obtain a reprieve of a few weeks to clear the remains of a Middle Ages in color. Without this, the artistic and archaeological treasure that are the remains of the rood screen, unveiled in 2024 at the Cluny Museum, would have remained buried for a few more centuries.

August 18, 2023 • Death of General Jean-Louis Georgelin

On the construction site, in the media or in the salons of the Élysée, General Jean-Louis Georgelin embodied the audacious bet of a reconstruction of the cathedral in five years since the president had entrusted him with this mission, two days after the ‘fire. Also, his accidental death during a summer hike in the Pyrenees was a shock: despite the general skepticism which accompanied his appointment as head of the public establishment Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris, the soldier revealed himself to be a master efficient workmanship, outspoken, sometimes overplayed authority and a “science of men”, as it is often said, necessary to lead the last campaign of his career. Philippe Villeneuve will also say “a little lost” after the disappearance of the general, the same one who nevertheless ordered him, in 2019, to “shut your mouth”. His right-hand man, Philippe Jost, then takes the reins of the site.

December 16, 2023 • The rooster finds its place at the top of the spire

A few hours after the fire, the photo made the rounds on social networks: Philippe Villeneuve, half-haggard, half-relieved, clutching the cock of the arrow, miraculously found in the rubble. Four years later, the chief architect accompanies the gallinaceous (or rather its reproduction) to the top of its new perch. A stage which marks the final stretch of a restoration project carried out at full speed, overcoming the obstacles of Covid-19 and lead, adapting the methodology of heritage restorers to the presidential deadline. Each advance brings the cathedral a little closer to its reopening: the last stones closing the breach in the vault in April 2023, the framework is completed in January 2024, the spire freed from its scaffolding appears in February of the same year, and the cleaning stones continues inside… In April 2024, Philippe Jost can breathe: deadline and budget will indeed be met.

December 7, 2024 • Notre-Dame receives its first visitors

Finally, 2,063 days after the fire in the cathedral, the public can discover the result of a project whose images remained secret until the doors opened. The diocese is armed with 500 volunteers to welcome the approximately 40,000 daily visitors expected, and the security surrounding the December 8 mass, which the president attended, is that of a global event. The President of the Republic wins his race against time, but the permanent construction site that is Notre-Dame is far from finished, because 2025 will be the year of the exterior renovation of the cathedral. The question of modern stained glass windows, that of access and tourist management of the site, the tense relations between the public establishment and the diocese: Notre-Dame de Paris has not finished bringing its share of dilemmas and controversies .