The Miracle of Notre Dame’s Restoration

   1582  
The Miracle of Notre Dame’s Restoration
Something big is happening in Paris at the end of this year. All minds are currently on the Olympic Games, but in December pictures will fly around the world of another event of huge significance. The newly restored cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, will reopen, just over five years after its near destruction by fire. And what miracles will have been achieved to arrive at that point.  Every French citizen and every Francophile will remember April 15th, 2019, when fire engulfed the cathedral and the spire toppled. In that moment it felt as if France’s precious heritage was disappearing, for Notre Dame was both a masterpiece of gothic architecture and the country’s most revered religious building, the place where such precious relics as the Crown of Thorns were kept. The cathedral was also the setting for some of the key moments in France’s history. It was to Notre Dame that Napoleon summoned the pope to crown him as Emperor in 1804. It was also there, in August 1944, that Général de Gaulle attended a Te Deum in thanksgiving for the Liberation of Paris, even as the last bullets were being fired across the city.    Louis IX receives the crown of thorns and other sacred relics for the Chapel (C). Unknown author, Public domain Thankfully, the Crown of Thorns and many precious artworks survived the fire, but the cathedral itself was left in a parlous state, despite the heroic efforts of the city’s Fire Brigade. The spire was gone and the roof was more or less destroyed. The very next day President Emmanuel Macron announced that rebuilding would begin straight away and pledged to have it finished in five years. An immediate appeal for funds was launched and contributions from the public and from over 150 countries flooded in.  The challenge was enormous, but the president was emphatic. Notre Dame would be repaired and as soon as possible. The skeptics thought it couldn’t be done, but all agreed that it had to be tried. Paris without Notre Dame was unthinkable.  “Notre-Dame de Paris” by Victor Hugo It was not the first time the cathedral’s existence had been threatened. During the French Revolution, Notre Dame was vandalized, many of the statues destroyed and precious metal treasures melted down. In the early 18th century, the medieval spire was deemed so at risk of collapsing that it was dismantled. The publication in 1831 of Victor Hugo’s novel, Notre Dame de Paris, known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, was a turning point. The story was set in the Middle Ages when the cathedral was at the height of its splendor and Hugo’s readers began to realize how badly it needed to be restored. A petition was launched, King Louis-Philippe commissioned the architect Viollet-le-Duc to oversee the project, and it was at this time that the new spire, the one so familiar to Parisians until the fire of 2019, was erected.    A portrait of Viollet-le-Duc/ Public domain
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • ALREADY SUBSCRIBED?

Lead photo credit : View of Notre Dame. Photo: John Eigenauer

More in exhibition, history, notre dame, restoration

Previous Article Coffee with the Three Musketeers: A Parisienne’s Café Adventures
Next Article 12 Must-See Movies About the Olympics


Recently retired from teaching Modern Languages (French and German), Marian now has time to develop her interests in travel and European culture and history. She will be in Paris as often as she can, visiting places old and new, finding out their stories and writing it all up as soon as she gets home. Marian also runs the weekly podcast series, City Breaks, offering in-depth coverage of popular city break destinations, with lots of background history and cultural information. She has covered Paris in 22 episodes but looks forward to updating the series every now and then with some Paris Extra episodes.