How Paris rebuilt the ‘people’s cathedral’ in just five years

Paris: By sunrise the morning after the fire, much of Notre-Dame appeared to be in ruins. Its nave was covered in soot, charred wood and debris after the inferno that came perilously close to destroying the 12th-century cathedral.

On April 15, 2019, the world watched in disbelief as the roof and spire of the elaborate Gothic building, first constructed between 1163 and 1345, erupted before vanishing from the Paris skyline altogether, consumed by the flames and leaving gaping holes in the ceiling vaults.

As the blaze spread, horrified onlookers held their mobile phones aloft along the banks of the Seine. For the French, the sense of loss was profound. The cathedral – a soaring medieval structure that has captured the hearts of believers and non-believers alike for 850 years – was ravaged. But, somehow, she still stood.

Five years on, Notre-Dame de Paris, which translates to Our Lady of Paris, will officially reopen this weekend with a ceremony on Saturday and masses on Sunday. Many French commentators had initially dismissed its reconstruction as impossible.

Hours after the fire was extinguished, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild the cathedral within five years and to make it more beautiful than before – a pledge disseminated by nearly every major media outlet around the world.

Among many historic events that took place in a building once described as the nation’s soul, Henry VI of England was crowned king of France in 1431, and Napoleon was officially named emperor in 1804. In 1831, French writer Victor Hugo invited readers of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame to step into the cathedral and look up, hailing the people’s cathedral’s “majestic and sublime” architecture. “Great buildings, like great mountains, are the work of centuries,” he wrote.

“The fire at Notre-Dame reminds us that our history never stops, and we will always have challenges to overcome,” Macron said. “We will rebuild Notre-Dame... We can do it. After the time of testing comes a time of reflection and then of action.”

In August last year, Jean-Louis Georgelin, the general in charge of the reconstruction, died in a fall while trekking in the Pyrenees. He had become the face of the ambitious rebuild – a jovial but no-nonsense military man – who prided himself on keeping the project on track.

His death put even more pressure on Macron, who had staked much of his legacy on rapidly restoring the cathedral. Georgelin, who had supervised military operations in Afghanistan and the Balkans, had likened the complexity of the rebuild to a “combat mission”, adding: “I must ensure that everyone, all those taking part in this battle, are mobilised to achieve the objective.”

With the 74-year-old gone, some predicted the deadline would not be reached. But Macron, who hailed him as the “greatest soldier” dedicated to restoring Notre-Dame “stone by stone”, promised his legacy would be honoured. He expressed regret that Georgelin would not be able to see its reopening with his own eyes. Philippe Jost, an armaments engineer and life-long civil servant, was appointed to take up the task.

The transformation itself is remarkable, with clean stone walls providing a light-filled backdrop to the statues and the paintings. The impression from the bottom of the nave looking up at the restored roof is of a monument that has been gently eased into the 21st century while preserving its almost 900-year-old roots.

An international workforce of 2000 workers and specialist craftsmen and women have laboured over its restoration — hewing enormous wood beams, carving and repairing stone gargoyles, retuning the 8000 pipes of the Grand Organ.

Around 2000 oak trees were felled across France to aid the rebuild. The trees, many more than 18 metres tall, were being used to remake the spire and to recreate the intricate 13th-century wooden framework that supports 4000 square metres of lead, weighing 210 tonnes. Carpenters spent 100,000 hours cutting the trunks to make the beams and 40,000 putting them into place at the top of the cathedral.

They rest in part on 1000 cubic metres of stone dug from the quarries of the Oise and the Aisne regions that replace those dislodged by the blaze. A further 41,000 square metres of stone surfaces, 3000 square metres of stained-glass and almost 2000 statues and sculptures have been cleaned and restored.

“You’ve achieved what was said to be impossible,” Macron told the team at the weekend. Even Donald Trump has praised Macron for fulfilling his pledge to rebuild Notre-Dame in such a short timeframe.

The incoming US president will attend the opening in a diplomatic coup for Macron as he grapples with one of France’s worst political crises in six decades. Macron is casting around for a new prime minister, having lost Michel Barnier in a vote of no confidence this week.

Everything about the restoration of France’s most famous cathedral has been monumental. That includes the bill, likely to exceed the €900 million ($1.479 billion) that was quickly raised from 340,000 donors across the world.

Last month, the sound of the eight bells came, just weeks before the painstaking restoration work was to be finished. To many, it was the moment that success was within reach.

“We all felt an intense emotion,” the cathedral’s vice rector, Guillaume Normand, said after hearing their chiming. “It’s November 8 and Notre-Dame is telling us: ‘I’m here, waiting for you’,” he said, calling the sounds “a sign of joy”.

In accordance with the strict rules that govern the separation of church and state in France, it was Macron’s government who was responsible for the cathedral’s structural restoration and conservation. The Catholic Church oversaw its interior.

The president, embattled politically for much of the past year, had hoped to deliver the keynote speech at the ceremony in the cathedral itself, in the presence of the Pope. But his plans went awry when Francis announced that he would not attend. Macron suffered a further setback when bishops complained that, as the head of the secular state, he risked eclipsing their religious message if he spoke.

Weeks of tense negotiations ended in a compromise, and Macron has agreed to deliver his speech outside the building instead. In return, last weekend he obtained authorisation from the church to enter the cathedral to pronounce what was officially termed “words of thanks” to those who worked on its renovation.

Authorities have speculated the fire was started by an electrical issue or a cigarette, but investigators still do not know for sure. More than 400 firefighters tackled the blaze.

Powerless to stop the collapse of the spire, they concentrated their efforts on saving the 69-metre-high north bell tower. Showing great courage, they entered it and beat back the flames, saving the structure, which, officials later claimed, had been moments from destruction.

It was said another 100 officials and clergy helped to form a human chain to save the cathedral’s many treasures – among them a relic of the crown of thorns believed to have been worn by Jesus Christ at the time of his crucifixion.

When Notre-Dame was last restored, in the 19th century, it took the young architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc 25 years to repair the remaining sculptures of the facade – French revolutionaries had beheaded most of them – and to redesign and build the 93-metre-high spire which had been dismantled in the 18th century.

“The damage was indeed considerable,” Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect in charge of the reconstruction, said this week, adding that internal features such as the great organ and the iconic stained-glass windows were somehow “miraculously protected”.

“There was hope,” he said. “That’s when I thought that the five-year deadline – which was an obsession for all of us from the beginning – seemed feasible to me.”

Jost said he was proud of his team’s work, especially under the circumstances. Before the fire, he said, the cathedral was visited by millions of tourists every year but largely forgotten by the French until they saw flames leaping from its roof.

Now she stands majestic over the capital again.

“Every time I step into Notre-Dame, it’s a moment of grace and beauty,” he said. “We had forgotten how beautiful the cathedral is.”

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