Today, April 15, 2022, marks the third anniversary of the Notre Dame fire.
In the 19th century, Victor Hugo's literary magnum opus, The Freak of the Bell Tower, made Notre Dame famous. This is a typical Gothic church building, located on the banks of the Seine in the center of Paris, originally built in 1163 and completed in 1345, and is one of the most representative monuments in France.
01
A fire engulfed Notre Dame
Three years ago, a shocking fire shocked the world, shocking and saddened the world! At about 6:50 p.m. local time on April 15, 2019, a serious fire broke out at Notre Dame Cathedral, and the raging fire quickly engulfed the spire of the tower. Thousands of Parisians fell to their knees in tears in prayer.
However, in the end, in the eyes of all, the spire built in the 19th century collapsed in a fire as if it had been broken by a barricade.
After the fire, the French government mobilized 400 firefighters to participate in the rescue. After 15 hours of emergency rescue, the fire was extinguished, and the main structure made of stone and the front bell tower were preserved. But because the wooden roof structure caught fire, the fire spread quickly, and the spire and dome of Notre Dame Cathedral burned in the fire, and the church was littered with burned building debris.
After the fire, the interior of Notre Dame cathedral was in ruins. Image source: Pool photo by Christophe Petit Tesson
Fortunately, due to repairs, the 16 statues (12 Jesus saints and 4 evangelists) on the spires of Notre Dame cathedral were removed from the spires a week ago and thus survived.
After the fire, people rushed to rescue the artworks inside Notre Dame, and many priceless artifacts were transferred to safety. On the evening of the 15th local time, Father Patrick Chauvet of Notre Dame de Paris said that the most important cultural relics in Notre Dame, the Couronne d'epine (Crucifixion Crown) have been successfully rescued. This crown of thorns is one of the oldest relics of the Christian faith and is of great significance to Catholics.
Image source: AFP
02
After the fire, the restoration was difficult
After the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, French President Emmanuel Macron said desperately: "Part of us has burned down." But then, immediately, in a televised address, he announced: "I hope to rebuild Notre Dame cathedral in five years, it will be more beautiful than it is now", and appealed for donations from all walks of life.
In just one day, private fundraising for the reconstruction of Notre Dame de Paris exceeded $700 million. As of April 11, 2021, according to incomplete statistics, about 833 million euros (about 6.5 billion yuan) have been raised for restoration. However, this number is far from enough to support the completion of the final repair.
According to the official plan directed by French President Emmanuel Macron, the official and comprehensive restoration of Notre Dame De Paris will begin by the end of 2021, and in April 2024 it is expected to reopen part of notre dame's interior for religious activities and to welcome the arrival of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. But in fact, the restoration of Notre Dame cathedral is difficult.
Image source: BBC
Despite the lack of funds, It is well known that Notre Dame de Paris has a history of more than 800 years and is famous for its Gothic architectural style, which is carved from a large number of carefully selected glass, stone and wood. Just searching for these precious restoration materials is a big problem.
Notre Dame's most original minaret was destroyed after the French Revolution. The famous French architect Eugène Violet Le Duc in the 19th century, compared with the medieval template of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, cut down more than 1,300 oaks and rebuilt the minaret, which is 96 meters high, 18 meters higher than in the Middle Ages, which is a miracle.
The Minaret of Notre Dame. Image source: Hippopx (copyright-free photography website)
In addition to the need for more than 1,000 oak trees, these oak trees must meet almost stringent requirements: century-old oaks between 150 and 200 years old, 8-14 meters high, with a straight trunk and a diameter of 50 to 90 centimeters.
Not only that, but the trees must be cut down by the end of March, or the sap secreted by the oak trees will make the wood too wet. Before it can be cut into beams, the trunk has to dry for 18 months. As of March 2021, experts had found only 8 oak trees that met the requirements, a far cry from 1,000.
In a wooded field in Paris, France, workers cut down oak trees. Image source: Xinhua News Agency
In addition to the minarets, the pillars, arches and curved vaults of Notre Dame cathedral were created by ancient craftsmen using a large amount of limestone and with exquisite craftsmanship. To restore, the staff must not only find suitable new stone, but also trace the birth of old stone, find the original mining site, and seek the most matched stone. However, after hundreds of years, the old quarry has long ceased to exist.
To this end, experts have gone deep into the 18th-century underground mining site (which is also a tomb) in Paris to find suitable stones under the ground covered with human bones. Even if stone is found, due to the lack of stone carving craftsmen and other related talents, it is difficult to restore stone carving, and it is very difficult to restore the stone carving skills of 900 years ago.
Rose windows at Notre Dame Cathedral. Image credit: Joe Daniel Price
In addition, the famous "rose window" of Notre Dame cathedral on three sides - thirteen meters in diameter, composed of more than 1100 stained glass plates, shaped like roses, although spared from the fire, but because the lead layer at the top of the ancient church was melted by the fire, these stained glass were covered with lead powder. Centuries-old stained glass is delicate and fragile, and experts must carry out meticulous and discreet glass decontamination restoration work. Fortunately, scientists have developed effective decontamination methods.
03
Restoration work is in full swing
On April 16, 2019, the day after the fire, the safety works at Notre Dame de Paris began, a necessary step before the restoration officially began. It mainly includes: the removal of scaffolding, the removal of the large pipe organ, the cleaning and classification of post-disaster debris, and the fixing of cross-sections of the interior of the church.
Baked by the fire, the behemoth was in jeopardy. The first work that needs to be done is to remove the scaffolding, which is not an easy task. At the time of the fire, the minaret of Notre Dame was being renovated. The metal scaffolding erected for renovation was severely deformed under the high temperature of the fire. The workers had to build new scaffolding and dismantle the damaged scaffolding covering the spire, weighing 30,000 tons, piece by piece.
In 2019, from June 8, two teams of 5 people will take turns to work, sawing down the scaffolding metal tubes that have been burned and melted together in sections, and then unloaded with a placed 80-meter-high crane.
The next phase of the project was the demolition of the cathedral's organ. Notre Dame de Paris is a mecca for organists and is known as a "symphony of huge stones". The large pipe organ in the hall is one of the most famous organs in the world, and the sound is thick and loud.
The giant instrument with 8,000 pipes was not damaged by the fire, but the pollution caused by the melting of the lead on the roof weighing more than 300 tons caused the tube to be covered with lead dust. The restorationists needed to set up a 30-meter-high scaffolding, remove the tubes one by one for deep cleaning, and then assemble them as they were, which is expected to take 4 years.
Notre Dame's pipe organ. Image credit: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The repair work is not going well. In the summer of 2019, the project was delayed due to the removal of the remaining lead particles from the burning of the church's minaret and roof; the autumn and winter weather was bad, especially the wind speed often exceeded 40 kilometers per hour, and the restoration work was difficult to progress; in early 2020, the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak forced the restoration work to be interrupted until April 27. The dismantling of the scaffolding was not successfully completed until the end of November 2020.
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris under restoration. Image source: Reuters
In September 2020, Notre Dame began the third phase of the safety works: experimental projects were carried out in two of the 24 chapels of the building. The purpose of the experiment was to extend the cleaning and restoration methods to all small sanctuaries. The last major project of the safety project was to secure the damaged vault with supporting arches.
Stone vault destroyed by fire. Image source: BBC
Jean-Louis Georgelin, president of the public body responsible for the preservation and restoration of the cathedral, said: "Protecting the most fragile circular vault is a complex operation and an unprecedented project. "
After more than two years of arduous engineering, on September 18, 2021, the French media reported that the safety and reinforcement work after the fire of Notre Dame De Paris has been completed as expected, and the main building structure of Notre Dame has been absolutely safe. At the end of this month, staff cleaned the interior walls and floors of the church, and the first phase of restoration work was allegedly launched in the quarter of 2021.
Before the fire, Notre Dame received about 12 million visitors a year.
Image credit: THIBAULT CAMUS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
04
What will the restored Notre Dame Cathedral be?
Since the news of the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral, internationally renowned architects have been eager to try it out, and various innovative design proposals have been released. For example, the architecture studio UMA in Stockholm, Sweden, proposed to replace the minaret and roof with a public swimming pool, the hanging garden of the Belgian architecture studio, and the terrace walkway scheme of the French landscape architect, which set off a wave of discussion and voting among netizens around the world.
The Swedish UMA construction company proposed to change the top of Notre Dame directly into a cross-shaped sky pool. Image source: UMA Construction Company of Sweden
Of course, these bold design concepts of "modern replacing classical" have also aroused the doubts of some netizens:
The French Senate passed the government's notre dame reconstruction bill, which, in addition to specifying that the restoration must be completed within five years, also added a provision that the appearance of the building must be "restored to a visible shape and must be reconstructed as it is", which is equivalent to directly saying "no" to the existing innovative restoration design proposal.
On December 26, 2021, according to CBS, Jean-Louis Georgelin, a worker in charge of the reconstruction work, said that there was a very precise plan for the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral. In a way, the most difficult part of the work has been done.
Notre Dame cathedral in Assassin's Creed
Philippe Dillman, director of research at france's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), presented a high-resolution image model of Notre Dame Cathedral. By creating 3D models by computers, researchers can understand the structure of Notre Dame itself and the ancient way the church was built, and confirm the original placement of the architectural fragments that "survived" so that the restoration project could be carried out.
3D model of Notre Dame Cathedral
At the same time, learn about the climate and evolution of the Middle Ages by observing isotopes in the wood. He said that science can help rebuild Notre Dame, and that reconstruction efforts are helping us understand science.
Many netizens lamented the past grandeur of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, saying that they "can't wait" and "see you in 2024!" ”
How exactly will Notre Dame be restored? Will this historic architectural masterpiece return to its original form, or will it change to incorporate the characteristics of today's era? The puzzle is estimated to be unraveled until the restoration is complete.
At present, the specific cause of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris remains unknown. The Paris Prosecutor's Office preliminarily ruled out the possibility of man-made arson, determining that the fire was purely accidental. According to multiple French media reports, the fire may have been caused by a short circuit in the power line on the top floor of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Interior of Notre Dame Cathedral. Image credit: DMITRY KOSTYUKOV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
For more than 800 years, Notre Dame Has stood quietly on the banks of the Seine, overlooking the city's lights and crowds. In the tower, I don't know how many years of precipitation have been sealed in the dust.
As the architect Remy Flosso said: "You always feel that there is something more to this building than the others, is it spiritual or material? I think there are both. There are something special beyond the mortar itself that keeps these stones closely connected. ”
Too late to cherish, too late to say goodbye, may this temple that was reborn from the fire be reunited with us as soon as possible!
Resources:
How much is the value of Notre Dame de Paris? Glass, stone and wood are extraordinary
The first step in the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris: a century-old wood of great significance
Two years after the fire, what is Notre Dame cathedral like now? Can the small goal of a 5-year restoration be achieved?
How far has Notre Dame been restored? 3D models, isotopes, netizens can't wait!
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