A new cathedral spire has finally emerged from scaffolding nearly four years after flames engulfed Paris’s storied Notre Dame Cathedral in April 2019. Intense reconstruction efforts began immediately following the accidental blaze, which investigators attributed to either an electrical short-circuit or a cigarette. But the fire sparked equally intense debates about how Notre Dame should be rebuilt — and looking to the cathedral’s history for guidance turned up more questions than answers.
It all started In 1160, when Bishop Maurice de Sully of Paris began plans for a large cathedral in the city dedicated to Mary, the mother of God. Three years later, builders broke ground for Notre-Dame de Paris with King Louis VII and Pope Alexander III in attendance. Construction spanned several hundred years, though the cathedral was mostly finished by 1345. Notre Dame underwent further construction throughout the centuries due to additions and maintenance.
More than 400 years later, the 18th century proved tumultuous not only for French Catholics but also for their physical churches. Notre Dame was no exception. Revolutionaries seized control of Church property in 1789, passed a law requiring clergy to pledge allegiance to the new, anti-Catholic French nation, destroyed churches and monasteries across the country, and established the notorious Cult of Reason.
Though it was replaced fairly swiftly by Robespierre’s own Cult of the Supreme Being, the short-lived Cult of Reason left a permanent mark on Notre Dame. The cathedral escaped destruction, but it was transformed into the Temple of Reason after revolutionaries looted almost everything, leaving only the bells.
In 1793, the Cult of Reason hosted its anti-Catholic “Festival of Reason” in the church, replete with busts of philosophers and a “seductively dressed” woman representing the goddess of liberty. That same fall, the French government had ordered an alteration to Notre Dame’s exterior. The west facade of the cathedral held 28 statues portraying biblical kings. Ever unrelenting in their antimonarchist fervor, the revolutionaries removed the 500-year-old statues, brought them to the cathedral square, and ceremoniously decapitated each statue.
Thankfully, the revolution didn’t last forever. In 1842, France’s newly appointed inspector of historic monuments commissioned the restoration of Notre Dame. He tapped young architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to lead the project, which lasted until 1864. Much like the architects working to rebuild Notre Dame today, Viollet-le-Duc had to determine how to reconcile the Cathedral’s various architectural styles. He left his own imprint on the cathedral, adding a few anachronistic elements in his otherwise thorough recreation of the medieval church.
Though Notre Dame had been restored to its former glory, the effects of the French Revolution were still palpable. A 1905 law established laïcité, a principle of strict separation between church and state — a separation so “strict” and unbridgeable that the state owns the churches. The 1905 law preserved the revolution-era seizure of Church property and recognized churches as state-owned buildings rather than privately held property.
Following the fire in 2019, this complicated relationship between church and state came to the forefront of renovation efforts. Owned by the French government, occupied by the Catholic Church, and claimed symbolically by the French populace, the reconstruction has been far from straightforward.
Almost immediately, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed the construction of a modern spire. Then–Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced a competition for “fresh ideas” for the cathedral’s reconstruction. The submissions, according to Architectural Digest, “ranged from the tasteful and restrained, to the borderline inscrutable, to social experiments never intended to be built.” Some architects proposed a modern reimagination of the previous spire, which had been built by Viollet-de-Luc in his reconstruction, but other architects submitted plans for contemporary sculptures, a greenhouse, and a public swimming pool. (RELATED: France Burns, Macron Dances)
Though it’s easy to laugh at some of the more ridiculous proposals, every step of the reconstruction process has involved serious efforts to modernize the medieval cathedral.
In the early months of reconstruction, France’s chief architect of the historic monuments service said that he would “resign rather than allow a modern spire … to be built atop the cathedral’s roof.” He won the argument, and the spire revealed this week is nearly identical to the original, built with the same construction methods and materials. Only one small change was made: the golden rooster topping the spire has been transformed into a phoenix with flaming wings.
But consensus has not yet been reached on what to do about Notre Dame’s famous chapel windows, which were undamaged by the fire. Last December, Macron proposed that contemporary stained glass by French artists should replace the chapel windows designed by Viollet-le-Duc in 1859. Once again, the selection would occur through a competition.
Surprisingly, Macron is merely the mouthpiece for the democratization of Notre Dame’s restoration. The local archbishop, Laurent Ulrich, supports the introduction of contemporary elements to the cathedral. The archbishop explained that he felt the church should not be rebuilt “without leaving a trace of this event [the fire], of this emotion.”
Ulrich proposed the introduction of stained-glass windows that “will remain as signs of our times.” Last summer, he approved “new, resolutely contemporary liturgical furnishings” for the church that perfectly resemble the drab, awkward modern architecture of many post-Vatican II Catholic Churches. One commentator called the new furnishings a “70s Ikea design, unworthy of the cathedral’s builders.”
As of this week, the cathedral remains ensconced in 600 tons of scaffolding and is expected to reopen for the first time since the fire on December 8. The French state might not have Notre Dame’s best interest at heart, and the aesthetic sensibilities of the local Catholic Church might leave something to be desired, but the cathedral is beloved the world over. The emergence of the newly restored spire this week brings some normalcy back to the Paris skyline, blessedly free — for now — of any modern attempts to improve upon the cathedral’s iconic exterior.
Mary Frances Myler is a writer from Northern Michigan now living in Washington, D.C. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2022.
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