Notre-Dame – Phoenix of Paris - five online talks by Dr Alexandra Gajewski

The devastating fire of 2019 is thought to have been caused by an electrical fault related to the then ongoing restoration of the spire or flèche. The reaction was widespread and immediate, with quick responses from President Macron and the French government, heritage bodies, sponsors, architects and designers. This was by no means the first time a cathedral had burned, and the impact can be compared with fires that have broken out in medieval cathedrals in the past, such as one at York Minster in 1829. Despite Macron’s pledge to open the reconstruction of the roof to an architectural competition, it was finally decided to reconstruct the cathedral ‘as it was’.

Little is known about the origins of Notre-Dame and the foundation of a Christian cathedral in the Roman city of Lutetia. The construction of the vast church as it stands today was began in the 1160s, replacing a number of earlier buildings on the site. The cathedral did not stand isolated; it was surrounded by the canons’ quarters and the bishop’s palace, with gates providing access to the medieval city. Building continued into the 13th century and beyond. Thanks to recent studies, we have a much better idea about what the medieval cathedral looked like, with new insights into its elevation, the vaulting system and the quest for light structures and height that determined its appearance.

The most important discovery was made in April 2022, when an archaeological excavation of the floor of the crossing, in preparation for replacing the spire, revealed fragments of the early 13th-century stone jubé (choir rood screen), which had been demolished in the 17th century. The remains include superb polychromed, figurative sculpture that demonstrate the importance of the workshop at Notre-Dame, and which can be compared with remains of the jubés at Chartres and Bourges. The reconstruction of the jubé, which is now possible, provides new information about the liturgy at Notre-Dame in the Middle Ages.

While the fire was already raging in the roof, the cathedral staff rushed to save the contents – the liturgical furnishings, reliquaries and works of art kept in the building, some 2,000 objects in all, mostly from the early modern period or later. The subsequent restoration of these objects has thrown new light on the religious life in the cathedral before the French Revolution, in particular the new rood screen commissioned under Louis XIII and realised under Louis XIV, and a series of Baroque paintings, called the Mays of Notre-Dame, because they were presented in the month of May.

Prior to the fire, the cathedral was as much a 19th-century building as it was a medieval one. Slowly falling into decay in the early 19th century, the building was saved by the enthusiasm spurred by Victor Hugo and his novel Nôtre-Dame de Paris of 1831.The restoration campaign (1844–64) under the eccentric architect-restorer Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc saved the building from destruction and invested it with the spirit of Gothic Revival.