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When Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris reopens, visitors “will be stupefied and amazed by the interior; it will be a shock.”
This statement was made by Philippe Jost, president of the special public authority overseeing the restoration, to national geography Writer Robert Kunzig, who, along with Paris-based Nat Geo photographer Tomas van Houtryve, was able to take a look inside before the monument opened its doors on December 8.
A devastating fire engulfed the 800-year-old monument on April 15, 2019.
Since then, more than 250 companies and hundreds of skilled craftsmen have worked hard to rebuild what is undoubtedly one of the most famous (and historically valuable) tourist attractions in the world.
In an article in the December 2024 issue of National Geographic, Kunzig sheds light on why Jost is convinced that visitors are about to be enchanted, explaining that “the walls, stained glass windows, paintings and sculptures have been cleaned and restored, all at once, for the first time since the 19th century.
Notre-Dame features grotesques, which are decorative, and gargoyles, which also function as rain pipes. In the foreground of this image is a grotesque known as Le Stryge. It stands between damaged gargoyles torn down for repair and newly sculpted replicas (rear) waiting to be put into place.
LEFT: Notre Dame’s nave, seen here from the organ balcony on the west front, is “cleaner and brighter than anyone has seen before, thanks to a latex application that removed soot and lead,” he explains Nat Geo. Marie-Hélène Didier, a conservator overseeing the restoration for the Culture Ministry, told the magazine: “People won’t recognize it.” RIGHT: “At the top of the vaulted ceiling, a golden angel adorns the oculus, a stone ring,” explains Nat Geo. ‘During the fire tremendous damage was caused when the falling spire went through the roof. From the scaffolding shown here, workers closed the large opening and rebuilt the oculus.
A craftsman inspects a special mold, created at Cloches Cornille Havard, a foundry in Normandy, to repair one of the damaged bells. Nat Geo adds: ‘Notre Dame’s two bell towers house 10 brass bells. The largest is called Emmanuel and hangs in the south tower, where it was undamaged during the fire. Cast in 1683 under Louis Eight smaller bells in the north tower had to be removed and cleaned of soot; Two of them were damaged and had to be restored.
The December 2024 issue of National Geographic
In total, 2,000 statues and decorative elements have been restored or recreated and 2,400 oak trees have been felled to rebuild the spire and roof structure.
Van Houtryve’s photographs show the transformation and here we present four of them.
One image shows Notre-Dame’s nave: “cleaner and brighter than anyone has seen it before.”
Another reveals a reconstructed stone oculus on top of a vaulted ceiling.
Van Houtryve also trained his lens on damaged gargoyles and newly sculpted replicas, waiting to be set into place.
A fourth image shows a craftsman inspecting a special mold created to repair one of the damaged bells.
Kunzig adds: ‘No cathedral is more important, neither for France nor for the world.
“(And) it has been rebuilt exactly as it was before the fire.”
For more information about this story visit www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/notre-dame-cathedral-restoration-reopening.
An archival image, which does not appear in National Geographic, of Notre-Dame taken in September 2023.