The controversies surrounding Notre-Dame’s reconstruction

The quarrel over contemporary stained-glass windows at Notre-Dame de Paris could well one day be the subject of a play.

Act I, scene 1. 2019. Location: Elysée Palace.
Stéphane Bern, a high-profile heritage advocate, followed Brigitte Macron to the office of General Georgelin, a few meters away from the first lady’s residence. Gorgelin was leading the reconstruction of the cathedral with a firm and commanding presence. That day, in the former chapel that serves as his headquarters, they met architect Jean-Marie Duthilleul, who had been called in to rethink the liturgical layout. In the background was a priest with the build of a farmer’s son from Moselle, in northeastern France, and a jovial smile. Gilles Drouin, director of the Superior Institute of Liturgy at the Catholic University of Paris, a specialist in the 12^th century and parish priest of the Parisian suburb of Évry, had been tasked by the archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, to draw up the project.

The fire of April 15, 2019, offered a blank slate to completely rethink the cathedral’s circulation, furniture and exhibits. It was this priest, appointed canon of Notre-Dame, who first came up with the idea that the general pitched to the first lady in his stentorian voice: “Replacing Viollet-le-Duc’s grisailles in the aisle chapels with a commission for contemporary stained glass, that’ll look good, won’t it?” The calm Duthilleul, invariably dressed in his black jacket and red scarf à la Aristide Bruant, remembered above all the officer’s emphasis. Bern, on the other hand, grimaced at the suggestion.

The idea of contemporary stained-glass windows quickly gained ground. Emmanuel Macron has always defended a bold architectural vision for Notre-Dame de Paris. On May 24, 2019, as he welcomed Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, the 87-year-old Pritzker Prize winner, to the Elysée Palace, the president was already indulging in an ode to youth and creativity. He noted that Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) was 29 when he built the spire, and Renzo Piano was 33 when he designed Paris’s Centre Pompidou museum: “We should trust today’s builders and trust ourselves,” he said.

Hands off Viollet-le-Duc

While the Church would like to restore life and theological language to the faded chapels lining the nave, the president would like to leave “a memorial trace.” As one Elysée adviser put it: “In 200 years’ time, no one will care that the misters or the heating were installed today. A work of art, on the other hand…” This is how the idea of commissioning a glass window to a contemporary artist, to replace Viollet-le-Duc’s geometrically shaped glass, became a reality. The diocesan committee’s idea was accompanied at the time by a broader call for contemporary works – such as those by Louise Bourgeois – and an innovative approach to visitor circulation, lighting and communion. It was enough to bring conservatism to a boil.

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