Considering how it was after the bombing, they did a remarkable job:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Coventry-Cathedral-Nov-16-1940.jpg
Update.
Apparently on track for the five year reopening goal.
Coincidentally, I saw a piece on French TV news about the restoration and re-installation of the massive statues of Christ and St Denis:
TF1 in French:
France24 in English on general progress:
Obviously if there are visible decorative parts that were damaged yes replace with as close to the same but Roof trusses? Lead shingles? come on, to me that is silly
Restoring what was there is going to be a lot less controversial, therefore incidentally much faster for people to agree, than making changes. Also, for truly historical buildings and parts of buildings [I don’t know about the status of the roof and spire specifically, but the chief architect for historic monuments testified at the time that he was in favor of a faithful reconstruction of everything] they are going to use traditional materials, not random substitutes.
You can have YouTube auto translate the subtitles into English (or most anything). It’s not great but close enough you can follow if you do not speak French.
so about 5 1/2 years after it burned.
the bells rang out!
Notre-Dame’s bells ring out for the first time since the devastating 2019 fire | CNN
the first test went well.
You would think they would do it properly:
Um… they didn’t have nearly as many bells to work with. Or was your comment meant to be funny?
Because wood is a perfectly fine building material in its own right? I would hope they’d install some sort of fire suppression system in there, but wood beams held up the roof for centuries. There is also a tricky balance in buildings like Notre-Dame due to the flying buttresses installed to counteract wall-spreading forces imposed by the weight of the original roof.
I’m neither architect nor engineer, but I know there’s some complicated factors in making sure buildings remain standing. It might be after the numbers were crunched wood vs. steel didn’t make much difference, other than they had the specs for a wood roof they know will work for centuries vs. designing a steel support from the start and integrating it with the old structure. And they opted for wood. I don’t know that for a fact, but it seems plausible to me.
Or maybe someone made a decision based on sentiment rather than sense. Wouldn’t be the first time. Anyhow - wood roof trusses work well over time, there’s ample evidence of that, so using wooden beams and trusses will at least result in a sound building.
Yeah, that seems more problematic to me…
They couldn’t. If they hired someone with scoliosis, the PC crowd would disapprove.
Notre Dame to reopen shortly.
CNN reports
National Geographic has a wonderful article on the restoration, what they did and why. One nice detail: the spire has a rooster (symbol of France, also present on the origonal) with flame-shaped wings and which contains a scroll with the names of all the restoration workers: the Cathedral rising from the ashes. And yes, there is now a newly installed fire suppression system. IMHO it would be incredibly foolish not to have one
It is said to be stunningly beautiful (the Cathedral, not the sprinkler system). They had to clean ash and soot as well as restore, and centuries of grime were removed.
I wish I could be there for the rededication ceremony. It sounds wonderful.
The reporting I saw on CNN mentioned that, despite the rededication ceremonies and reopening to the public, the restoration is still not done and won’t be until sometime in 2030. So more than ten years since the fire.
This is closer to the mark than you might think. There was a bit of a discussion of this 5 years ago in this thread, and the trend in cathedral restoration from the last century - many are centuries old and need almost continuous renovation anyway - is to use materials and methods as close to original/authentic as possible.
Of course, original/authentic is a bit interpretive and arbitrary itself. Most cathedrals took decades or even centuries before being considered complete. As above, they need almost continuous renovation, so ‘complete’ is itself somewhat arbitrary. In the case of Notre-Dame, they meant restoring it to the standard of the 19th century restoration, i.e. the one after being burnt out and derelict from the French Revolution, which was itself somewhat controversial for not being ‘original’ or whatever.
Looks like they’ve done a great job. I hope we don’t start hearing about corners cut and speed favored over quality work, just to meet President Macron’s ambitious deadline.
Special axes were forged in Montreal - simulating those of 800 years ago. This was to allow the wood to be cut/carved exactly as it was back then.
Montreal blacksmith forged axes for Notre-Dame Cathedral restoration
Green wood, axes and oaks: how ancient skills helped to raise Notre-Dame’s new roof
NBC’s YouTube post of the reopening ceremony featured as of the time I type this sort of an odd mix of at first raw feed then cut to restart a produced segment with inane host commentators ignoring the actual activities to then back to the live as-is for the religious ceremony, with a long part of the first half of proceedings featuring a huge chyron banner blocking a significant portion of the long shots.
I kind of hope they do some better version post-prod though I dread that then the hosts would be “explaining for Americans” all the way through everything…
A couple of times they seemed to have decided to unleash the organist to “show us what she can do”. Hey it’s their joint, whatever they’re into…
In the middle of the congregation (once that obnoxious chyron went away) there stood out the several rows of the firefighters in their red jackets as a bright note. Meanwhile for color up front the Archbishop and other celebrants were given an interesting set of vestments that featured all the liturgical colors (white, gold, red, green, dark purple/blue) simultaneously.
But whatever the details still uplifting, knowing what it took to get here.
(BTW no smiting of any of the numerous smite-deserving figures in the VIP seats, I guess it was Merciful God time. Plus He would not want to make a scene at Mom’s home rebuild party.)
Here’s an interesting Washington Post interactive graphic guide to the rebuilding.