Summary
The newly restored 850-year-old Notre-Dame Cathedral will reopen on December 7, five years after the devastating 2019 fire.
The €700m renovation has revitalized the Gothic masterpiece, preserving its historical integrity while incorporating modern safety upgrades like sprinkler systems.
The project involved 2,000 skilled craftsmen, boosting traditional trades such as stone-carving and woodwork.
Key features, including stained-glass windows and artwork, were saved, while the spire and roof timbers were reconstructed.
Notre-Dame was crumbling from hundreds of years of neglect when the hunch-back story renewed interest and the Cathedral was “restored”. She’s burned down several times since then.
Did the reconstruction have to honor modern building codes? Did they use modern building techniques? What about materials?
Notre-Dame isn’t 850 years old. I guess I’m making a ship of Theseus argument, but who can deny that this is a modern building?
if a fire destroyed half of a historic painting, would it be acceptable to allow modern artists to stitch in new canvas and “restore” the charred painting?
Restoration is destruction. The building that stands where that historic cathedral once did is less genuine than the historic recreations in Disneyland and Las Vegas because those counterfeits don’t pretend to be anything else. I recon the near universal human approval of all archival, restoration, and collection projects are all different flavors of death denial.
Understandable to disagree with whether or not restoration preserves the history and soul of an architectural wonder but I have to ask—what’s the alternative? Leave it as ruins? Build something truly modern and uninspired?
Hell yea, let it be ruined, let the weeds and the vines thrive on its remains and make it ten times as beautiful as she was
Lol. Cool from a universal perspective but I live in a city with plenty of run down buildings and I’ve gotta disagree. Make it a usable building or make it a useful or usable green space. Land is finite, wasted space in cities leads to sprawl elsewhere
Yea absolutely, it would be open, like a park