A specialist for each material: this has been the reconstruction process of Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris burned down in 2019. Two years after the accident, the restoration of the cathedral is advancing. Here's what we know.

“If you think of Notre Dame, the first thing you think of is gargoyles,” says Fernando Gomez Baptista, infographic illustrator for National Geographic. Generally, the artist explains, these sculptures are associated with the period of medieval Gothic architecture. However, these pieces “are not original: they were added in the 19th century”.

This curiosity led him to investigate the stonework that the cathedral has endured over the centuries. After 800 years of construction, the façade, details and stonework have changed. For this reason, Baptista spent months investigating the construction process of Notre Dame de Paris. The magazine wanted to publish a graphic report on the adhesions that have been made to it over time, which have modified its façade since the Middle Ages.

Originally, the idea was to make a chart “explaining the medieval and non-medieval parts of Notre Dame,” Baptista explains. Then came 2019, and a raging fire destroyed the spire, ceiling, and much of the stonework in the upper vaults. At that time, there was a change of plans.

We suggest: Notre Dame de Paris begins its reconstruction and will reopen its doors in 2024

After an oversight

The fire happened on Monday, April 15. The French government assumes that it was caused by an oversight on the part of one of the restoration workers who, while smoking on the vaults, accidentally dropped a cigarette. The flames could not be contained until several hours later.

Restoration work on Notre Dame began immediately. By the end of the month, the BBC reported, France had raised around 750 million euros, from elite fashion houses and other private companies. What's more: a year later, the authorities were severely criticized for felling thousands of oak trees over 200 years old, to replace burned wood on the roof.

Two months before the accident, Fernando Gomez Baptista was already looking for a way to document which parts of the cathedral do correspond to the Middle Ages. It took 2 years before I was able to visit Paris, with Notre Dame covered in scaffolding, fabric and wooden reinforcements “[…] it became the center of my life. It was almost an obsession”, the journalist wrote about his experience with the cathedral, for the National Geographic Spain Newsletter.

More context: France cuts down 200-year-old oak trees to rebuild Notre Dame

A specialist for each material

After the accident, a cloud of lead settled inside the building. The burning of the materials caused this material to be locked up there, so it is forbidden to enter the cathedral without protection :

Always accompanied by a security person, Fernando went up with a photographer to the towers of the church. From there, he was able to see how the roof restoration currently looked. Between platforms and scaffolding, workers seek to reclaim the building's past glory. As restoration work requires a high level of specialization, according to Baptista, each material used to rebuild requires a team of specialists.

During his stay in Paris, the infographics artist learned that some of the areas inside Notre Dame have already been restored. Two chapels where the restoration work is already finished, as in the case of Saint-Ferdinand. While there, he learned that “there were areas damaged by fire, by smoke, but also by water from the fire brigade”.

More Parisian renovations: Paris's plan to turn the Champs-Elysees into a garden full of life

Just as it was before

According to Baptista, the stone that supports the columns of Notre Dame is undergoing a process similar to a dermatological peel. A few gels to remove dirt and liquid cement is injected into the damaged stones that have a solution, always trying to maintain as much as possible the original structure of the cathedral. Although the contemporary design to replace the spire was widely discussed, the French government decided to respect the cathedral's past glory.

The infographic designer acknowledges that, currently, “the light is very strange” inside Notre Dame. He attributes this phenomenon to the fact that "everything is covered by scaffolding and there are tarpaulins", which does not allow for the aesthetic interplay between the rose windows and the different heights of the building.

While there, in the middle of the work, Baptista realized that “the cathedral is symmetrical, but asymmetrical” at the same time. Although that Gothic principle of almost identical proportions is obeyed on the façade, the interior of the church shows the differences.

He met Philippe Villeneuve, the architect in charge of the restoration project, who answered his questions and showed him many details of the restoration process. “The columns are not all the same; On one side you have circular windows and on the other, you don't”, he details.

Nothing that fell at Notre Dame is rubble

With all this, the team of specialists in France decided to abide by the same principle: everything has to go back to the way it was before . During these two years, while the structure of the cathedral was being reinforced, a laboratory on the outskirts of Paris researched which were the most suitable materials to respect this premise. Finally, none of the fallen is rubble:

Once the removal, restoration and rebuilding of the cathedral is finished, the infographic artist wants to return to Paris to see how it all turned out. "When I come back, this is going to be amazing: to see her again as she was."

Continue reading:

15 majestic European cathedrals you should visit at least once in your life

15 things to do when visiting Paris after the pandemic