Notre Dame cathedral survived fire, war, and Napoleon鈥檚 redecorating
On April 15, 2019, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris caught fire. Eyewitnesses in the streets and viewers around the world waited, shaken and silent, as the spire fell, and were on tenterhooks at the thought that its towers could be next.聽
Author Agn猫s Poirier vividly re-creates聽the scene in her superb history of the 800-year-old cathedral, 鈥淣otre-Dame: The Soul of France.鈥� As the inferno raged, firefighters engaged in 鈥渉and-to-hand combat鈥� to avoid a total collapse of the structure. They succeeded, but the fire, which occurred during restoration work, decimated the roof and damaged construction scaffolding. In June of this year, workers returned to the job of removing pieces of scaffolding, after the pandemic had halted reconstruction. President Emmanuel Macron has vowed the cathedral will reopen in 2024.
The determination to see this landmark rebuilt is testament to the regard that the French have for the cathedral. It is more than a historic building: Its history mirrors that of France. 鈥淲e thought she was immortal, we thought she was made of imperishable matter, we thought she would bury Paris, she would see the end of times, long after we have all turned to ashes,鈥� Poirier writes.
Why We Wrote This
Can a structure inspire awe and devotion? More than flying buttresses and rose windows, Notre Dame cathedral has symbolized strength and continuity, not just for Parisians but for people all over the world.
Following the harrowing summary of the fire itself, Poirier backtracks to the 1100s, sketching Paris as a city teeming with promise. The bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, hired an architect to prepare plans for a cathedral of rare, yet discreet, beauty. 鈥淲e will never know where he came from, whether he was the son of peasants ... or a relative of Louis VII,鈥� Poirier writes of the unknown original architect. Unnamed, too, are the bishop鈥檚 serfs, who were pressed into service as laborers.聽
Poirier details the cathedral鈥檚 design innovations, set in motion by the original architect and retained by his successors, including Eug猫ne Viollet-le-Duc in the 13th century. She writes that the intent was to project a spartan, stringent grandeur. 鈥淗er serenity was almost austere.鈥� Descriptions abound of everything from the smallest iron door fittings to the immense, airy nave.
The book is filled with a remarkable cast of historic figures. Poirier notes, for example, Napoleon鈥檚 meticulous if gaudy handiwork in making the edifice acceptable for his coronation, including the whitewashing of walls and vaults (which wrecked frescoes) and the covering of interior stone with fabrics and marble floors with carpets.
Victor Hugo is given a chapter in Poirier鈥檚 book, thanks to 鈥淭he Hunchback of Notre-Dame,鈥� which still inspires people around the world to care about the cathedral and wish to preserve it. Poirier calls Hugo鈥檚 novel 鈥渢he book that keeps on looking after Notre-Dame.鈥�
Leapfrogging from one historical epoch to another, Poirier describes how the cathedral survived the Hundred Years鈥� War, the French Revolution (during which time it was temporarily called the 鈥淭emple of Reason鈥�), and World War II. Yet Poirier suggests that it endures not simply for the splendor of its design, nor for the backdrop it provided for European history, but for our common attachment to it 鈥� a deep-seated connection exemplified in the reaction to the 2019 blaze.聽
Despite France鈥檚 pride in its secularism, Poirier writes that the fire brought forth signs of faith: 鈥淣otre-Dame, a place where the sacred met the secular, reminded us all of where we came from in an unexpected and powerful way.鈥�
