2023-09-18 18:52:47
Since April 15, 2019, Paris is not the same. One of its most endearing symbols, the Notre Dame Cathedral, is surrounded by scaffolding awaiting the moment when it will be shown to the world again. That horrendous day, the jewel of Gothic architecture built between the 12th and 13th centuries, in the middle of the Middle Ages, was devoured by flames, its impressive wooden roof collapsed while centuries of history evaporated, in real time, in front of the everyone’s eyes.
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The heart of France was wounded. For this reason, President Emmanuel Macron did not hesitate to set a deadline: Notre Dame had to be restored in five years. A monumental task, not only because of the immense damage that the church sustained, but because it is a historic cathedral where reconstruction could not be done lightly.
For this reason, for four years the details have been taken care of to the maximum. So much so that even medieval techniques are being used to recreate what the cathedral was like at its conception, such as the manual carving and chiseling of the oak beams or the cleaning of its exquisite stained glass windows.
On April 15, 2019, the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral was consumed by fire. (Photo: Fabien Barrau / AFP)
In fact, each material used has a team of specialists who are getting ready for the grand reopening scheduled for December 8, 2024. Around a thousand people work on the project, not only at Notre Dame itself but throughout the country: from lumberjacks, carpenters, blacksmiths, stonemasons, architects, engineers, historians, restorers, painters, plastic artists, ceramists, glassmakers, as well as anthropologists and archaeologists. Just as a detail, the rubble has not been discarded, but is being carefully studied to investigate the history behind each particle of the cathedral.
IN FIGURES
900 million dollars
The French State has collected donors from various parts of the world for the restoration of Notre Dame.
14 million
People are expected to visit the cathedral each year once it reopens to the public. Before the fire it received 12 million tourists.
40 mil
Scaffolding desserts were burned and melted after the fire and had to be removed to prevent the structure from collapsing.
“We tried to remake things identically. But we also try to understand the intention of the original sculptors, so we look at the traces left by their tools,” sculptor Danae Leblond, 23, who works on carving several pieces, including the emblematic ones, tells CBS. gargoyles
Although there were proposals to “modernize” the cathedral, such as making it an eco-efficient building, or having a swimming pool on the roof or shining a beam of light towards the sky, the French government persisted in the idea that Notre Dame should be like was before. It will shine again restored, but not recreated. For this reason, the same elements that were used for its construction are being used: stone, wood and iron.
And the reconstruction?
Four years later, it has still not been possible to identify what caused the fire. The experts point out two hypotheses: an electrical failure or a poorly extinguished cigarette. The French State has owned Notre Dame since 1905 after the approval of a law that separates the Church from the State. Thus, it is responsible for the reconstruction of the structure, while the Catholic church oversees the interior.
The so-called forest of Notre Dame, an impressive wooden framework made of trees that even dated back to before the 12th century and that covered the roof, will be replaced by another framework for which some 2,000 oak trees from more than 200 years ago have been cut down. , something that caused controversy in the country.
That wood is also being used to rebuild the impressive 60-meter-high spire that collapsed during the fire, and which will once again crown the church’s roof in July next year, before the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. .
A historic challenge
The 2019 fire not only consumed the wooden roof and the spire, but when it collapsed it hit the altar and a large part of the central nave.
But the destruction did not stop there because when trying to extinguish the flames, firefighters had to spray a large amount of water on the limestone structure, which could have caused it to completely collapse, something that ultimately did not happen. Likewise, the ejected ash formed soot that damaged paintings, sculptures and stained glass windows, as well as the enormous metal organ.
Firefighters put out flames from the roof of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris after a large fire in the historic Cathedral in central Paris. (Photo: AFP)
Therefore, the challenge for the entire team working in the restoration is immense. “It is a great challenge because two objectives that usually contradict each other have to be met: first, to provide security to the people who occupy a historic building against earthquakes and other extreme events and, second, to respect the values of the building that “They define its historical character, including respect for the authenticity of the building and the principle of minimal intervention,” engineer Daniel Torrealva, head of the PUCP Structures Laboratory, tells this newspaper.
A new obstacle: the death of the project manager
His presence was common at every press conference or report that showed the progress of the reconstruction of the cathedral. Retired general Jean Louis Georgelin, former chief of the General Staff, was commissioned in 2019 by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to be responsible for the restoration works, a task that he carried out until his death, which occurred in August. past.
Georgelin died due to a mountain accident in the Pyrenees and received a national tribute led by the president himself.
“Notre Dame Cathedral is, in a way, the heart of France. All the great events in France, in one way or another, took place here,” he told the American network CBS just a few months ago.
His task has now fallen to Phillipe Jost, an engineer who was Georgelin’s right-hand man and dealt with the technical side of the operations, ensuring the continuity of the detailed restoration process.
“We are determined to continue their efforts. We owe it to many people, but we also owe it to him,” said Jost after his appointment.
An interesting detail is that Notre Dame had already been the subject of a very complex restoration in the 19th century by the architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, considered the father of the New Gothic style. His was the idea of the spire, the half-timbered roof that complemented the forest, the gargoyles and various bronze sculptures, giving new life to the cathedral that had been abandoned and looted during the French Revolution.
At first, the restorers entered into a debate about whether that cathedral converted by Viollet-le-Duc or the original one from the 12th century should be recovered, but the decision ended up being the one we know: Notre Dame has to return as it was, reborn. of his ashes.
POINT OF VIEW
“Notre Dame still has a lot to say”
Architect Carlos Torres Flores
University professor and director of the consultancy Project Heritage
One of the most important challenges at Notre Dame is the technical aspect, since the techniques that are being developed for this process are state-of-the-art in terms of documentation, research and production, but it is also being recovered in a compatible and traditional way, which which is an immense challenge in the restoration process.
The recovery of Notre Dame will mark a milestone and leaves many lessons to be learned in terms of restoration and conservation.
Each restoration process arises after understanding the value of the building, in this case the value of Notre Dame goes through its architecture, its aesthetics, its history, what it means as an emblem and that makes the project so important not only at the national level. but throughout the world.
This cathedral has endured wars, conquests, invasions, fires, and yet it has an immense projection. A heritage building should not just be seen as a good thing from the past, because that is putting it in a glass box and freezing it, but you have to understand what the building means now, in the present, and what it can mean in the future. The only way for historic buildings to last over time is not to treat them as museums but to make them alive, active and for people to use them. Notre Dame is a church that has a lot to say about what has happened, but also has a lot of potential for the future.
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