Restoring Faith: Notre-Dame de Paris Enters a New Era

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we visit the French Gothic masterpiece of ‘Our Lady of Paris’ after its restoration.

The west façade of Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) cathedral in Paris, on Dec. 7, 2024. Over five years, some 250 companies and hundreds of experts restored the cathedral after fire ravaged the UNESCO World Heritage building in 2019. The two 76 yards tall towers house the bronze bells and the bourdon Emmanuel bell cast in 1686. Three portals on the lower part of the façade house stone carvings depicting biblical scenes of (L) the Virgin; The Last Judgement; and Saint Anne. Twenty-eight stone figures represent the 28 generations of Judean kings before Christ. In front of the center of the rose window, a stone statue of the Virgin is flanked by two angels symbolizing “fault” and “redemption” to all those who enter. Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

On April 15, 2019, as the world watched fire ravage the Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris in English), people wondered if the beloved cathedral would ever be the same. Now, after five years of restoration, the holy French Gothic masterpiece graces the Paris skyline anew.

It took some 250 companies and hundreds of experts to restore the cathedral. As Victor Hugo wrote in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The greatest products of architecture are less the works of individuals than of society; rather the offspring of a nation’s effort, than the inspired flash of a man of genius.” People around the world donated more than $882 million to help.

A Medieval Treasure

Around 1160, the bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, commissioned the Notre-Dame in honor of the Virgin Mary. Pope Alexander III laid the cathedral’s cornerstone in 1163, and although most of the building was completed by the end of the 12th century, the cathedral took nearly two centuries, until 1345, to finish.