Unbelievable Restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

Paris, the capital of France, is the center of global attention these days, where not only the preparations for the 33rd Summer Olympics starting from July 26 are in full swing, but the reconstruction work of the 860-year-old cathedral is also in the final stages of completion.

Anyone who hears the name of Notre-Dame comes to mind with its entire magnificent building. This building is not just a cathedral but a whole history.

This is Notre Dame Cathedral, a masterpiece of French Gothic architecture built on April 25, 1163, the cornerstone of which was laid by Pope Alexander III. This grand building, which was built under the supervision of the Bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, was badly damaged by a severe fire on the night of April 15 and 16, 2019, during the renovation and restoration work. Its roof caught fire and burned for whole 15 hours.

The fire was so intense that for the next few days it was unclear if the structure of this historic mega structure would even survive. But luckily even the worst fire failed to completely destroy Notre Dame Cathedral. The timber fleche over the crossing was destroyed, as was most of the lead-covered wooden roof above the stone vaulted ceiling.

On July 9, 2020, the Chief Architects of Historical Monuments presented a plan for the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral to the French National Commission for Heritage and Architecture, which was started shortly after. Today, this Parisian icon is set to re-opening 5 years after a shocking fire tore through the roof of the building.

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The reconstruction of Notre Dame was started immediately and the authorities had promised that it would be opened to the public before the Paris Olympics in 2024, but due to the global outbreak of the corona virus, the project was delayed indefinitely.

According to the former Minister of Culture of France, Rima Abdul Malak, although the building will be opened to the public in December 2024, but this does not mean that the renovation work will be over. Some of the renovation works of Notre Dame Cathedral will continue in 2025.

During the restoration of the building, historic paintings on the cathedral’s buildings are also being reproduced, and Jean-Louis Georgelin, the military general in charge of the reconstruction project, says that the cathedral will be opened to worshipers on 8 December 2024 and that he and his team is determined to do so against all odds.

The building of the historic Notre Dame Cathedral is mostly based on stone, while its roof was made of wood. In February 2021, 1,000 oak trees with a diameter of 50 to 90 cm and a height of up to meters were selected from the hundreds of years old forest of Sarthe, France for the preparation of the roof and Spire of Cathedral destroyed by fire.

After selecting the best trees from the forest and felling them, their trunks were left to dry completely for 12 to 18 months. These ancient trees got a new life after being installed on the roof of the magnificent Notre Dame.

The perfectly round logs selected for the roof of Notre Dame were cut into 8 to 10 meter sizes and installation began. After the work was completed, it was estimated that more timber would be needed for the roof of the cathedral, as there was still a large gap.

Another 1,000 ancient trees were selected from the forest, as more wood was needed to rebuild the base of Notre Dame’s spire. From the beginning, the experts have tried hard to completely restore the building in the same ancient style in which it was first constructed.
This forest has been cared for generations and the trees selected from here have been ensured to be of A grade category wood, so that it can never be de-shaped after being installed in the cathedral.

The trunks of the trees selected for the spire were cut into 20-to-25-meter pieces. A dedicated sawmill was equipped with more equipment, while existing equipment was modified, to cut these more than 250-year-old trunks with precision.

The cathedral building suffered another problem. The fire and ash from the burnt wood had brought salt to the surface of the stones used in the building, creating a risk of crumbling in the stones.

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A team of 6 men and 12 women were selected for the complex process of desalination, who worked diligently on every centimeter of the cathedral. In the special mixture prepared for the desalination process, water that was free of salt was selected. This mixture was highly capable of absorbing excess salt from the stones. It was then applied to the surface of all the stones of the Notre Dame Cathedral and removed after hardening in a few months, so that the stones could be cleaned.

The Italian specialist overseeing the task says he has been involved in the field for the past 20 years, but the Notre Dame Cathedral site has no parallel in the world.  While the restoration work of the building is rapidly entering the completion stages its cleaning and decontamination work is also going on.

During the 2019 fire, hundreds of tons of lead in the Notre Dame Cathedral melted and turned into dust, engulfing the entire building. It was imperative to remove this contamination, especially lead oxide, which had settled and mixed with the initial dust here. For the reconstruction of the building, it was necessary to get rid of this toxic environment so that the workers could work in a healthy and safe environment.

The Grand Organ, located a few hundred meters from the main building of the cathedral, was largely preserved, but the cathedral’s restoration project included cleaning and repairing the historic organ. In early December 2021, the Grand Organ was decommissioned and removed, and its pipes will be taken to the small town of Ludeau, 700 kilometers south of Paris, for repairs and extensive cleaning. The 24-year-old special workshop here continues to remove the lead dust accumulated as a result of the fire from this organ. The reassembly and tuning of the organ is expected to be completed by April 2024.

The year 2023 saw significant progress in the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral. During this time, around 1,000 workers were engaged in various workshops across France, including the cathedral site. In addition to restoration of stone walls, stained glass windows and iron railings have been restored. Key building elements such as vaults and buttress walls have been repaired or replaced, while the timber framework for the nave and choir has been prepared in workshops for installation. Reconstruction of the famous spire of the cathedral has also been started.

From its initial construction until 2018, Notre Dame Cathedral has undergone various stages of renovation. Despite renovations in the 1990s at the end of the last century, the cathedral building showed signs of deterioration, which led the French government to create a new restoration program in the late 2010. The project was estimated to cost €100 million, which the Archbishop of Paris decided to raise through funds from the national government and private donations. A nearly $6.4 million renovation of the cathedral’s flèche took place from 2018 to 2019, and the copper statues and other decorative elements on the roof of the building were temporarily removed just days before the horrific fire in April 2019.

More than 500 workers involved in the current restoration project are constantly engaged in the reconstruction efforts and are ensuring that Notre Dame Cathedral will be open to the public by December 2024. Preservation of historical buildings is not only the responsibility of the government but of all of us, no matter where they are located in the world.