Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris unveils new look
Visitors to Paris’s medieval masterpiece, almost destroyed by fire five years ago, might be surprised at how much the beloved landmark has changed.
The first thing that strikes you about Notre-Dame is how light and bright it is now; that and the richness of the colours of the art that adorns its walls. Five years after a devastating fire came  close to  bringing  the entire medieval masterpiece crashing down, the Grande Dame on the banks of the Seine is back thanks to a painstaking €700m ($1.15bn) renovation project. And what a makeover it has had.
Now that the opening festivities – attended by Donald Trump, Prince William and other dignitaries – are over, the cathedral is once again welcoming worshippers and visitors; it is expected to receive 40,000 a day. They will be in for a pleasant surprise, as I found when I was in a group given a sneak peek by Philippe Jost, the veteran French civil servant in charge of the final stages of the project.
The differences are apparent as soon as you walk through the main doors and across the smooth polished chessboard of a floor. Gone is the dark, gloomy air familiar to anyone who joined the 12 million people who used to visit each year before the blaze on the evening of April 15, 2019. It is not just that considerable sections of the cathedral, including the spire and the roof, have been meticulously rebuilt. Everything that survived largely unscathed has been stripped of ash, lead dust and centuries of accumulated grime. This has meant cleaning and polishing 40,000sq m of stonework and countless chandeliers, regilding the grand pulpit, completely dismantling the 8000 pipes of the Grand Organ, the largest in France …. the list goes on.
Those who know the cathedral well will spot other differences as soon as they enter, starting with an elegant new bronze baptistery, part of a set of liturgical furniture designed by Guillaume Bardet, a minimalist French designer. An 18th-century statue of the Virgin Mary previously in a northern chapel has been moved closer to the entrance, as has Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet’s 1716 painting, La Visitation. There are 400 new, much lighter chairs for the faithful. Large wooden partitions have been removed.
“What you are seeing here is in part the effect of cleaning the stone,” explains Jost, who inherited the top job in August 2023 after Jean-Louis Georgelin, a retired army general who had driven the first phase of the project military-style, died aged 74 while walking in the Pyrenees.
“But it is also about focusing on the width and depth of the cathedral,” he adds. “Before it was a bit like a tunnel leading to the altar. By unifying the interior space, we will regain a splendour that is even more beautiful, a brilliance that we have never seen before.”
The whole effect, chips in Remi Fromont, one of the three chief architects, is very “blond” and perhaps akin to what the first visitors saw back in the late 13th century. This new – or should that be old – look will be enhanced by a sophisticated automated lighting system that will change according to the time of day and whether or not services are taking place.
“As a gothic cathedral, it is designed to let in sunlight, but our aim is to complement that,” says Patrick Rimoux, who designed the lighting. “My advantage was that everything had to be scrapped and we could do it all from scratch.”
More changes are apparent as you move deeper into the cathedral. The 29 chapels circling the nave and choir, previously dulled by dirt and neglect, are now full of colour; restorers have uncovered murals, gilded stars on ceilings and vibrant motifs. One of the highlights is the Crown of Thorns, brought by Louis IX of France from the Holy Land in the 13th century, which has a new reliquary. The glass box in which it was previously displayed was smashed when it was snatched from the flames.
Deciding how best to restore a building that has been altered many times since its completion almost 700 years ago is not self-evident. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, attention focused in particular on the spire, which was brought down by the fire. It was not original but added by the architect, Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, as part of the last major renovation of the cathedral in the 1850s. Some – President Macron included – initially favoured replacing it with a more contemporary design, and a competition was launched. One entry proposed putting a greenhouse on the roof; another a swimming pool. Sacrilege? Possibly, but then look at the glass pyramid president Mitterrand put up in the 1980s in front of the Louvre. Though much derided at the time, it has long since become a landmark in its own right.
Not surprisingly, though, when it came to Notre-Dame more conservative voices eventually prevailed. The spire has been restored to its previous state, as have the interior and the intricate 13th-century oak wooden framework – the foret (forest) – that holds up the roof. It was up there that the fire is thought to have started, though investigators have still not established how.
To prevent a repetition, hidden away out of sight is a sophisticated fire protection system that includes thermal cameras, a misting system and pipework able to pump more than 150,000 gallons of water an hour.
Despite the grand opening, work on Notre-Dame has still not been completed. It will take several more years to renovate the flying buttresses and other parts of the exterior. The parvis (plaza) in front is also being redesigned to make it greener and more open to the River Seine, which will greatly enhance the experience for visitors.
Actually getting a ticket to see all of this may require the patience of a saint, though. Places for services for the Octave of Reopening, a series of special events that lasted until December 15, sold out within two hours. Time slots for those who just want to look around can be booked via Notre-Dame’s website. Visitors are being advised not to turn up without a reservation. Entry remains free.
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