What it took to rebuild Notre-Dame within five years

The world was quiet from this height. The air was crisp. Cumulonimbus clouds, drifting away toward Montmartre, revealed the blue of the sky. A gull cried, flying upstream along the Seine. Following the brisk steps of Philippe Jost, the man heading the public agency Rebâtir Notre-Dame (“Rebuilding Notre-Dame”), we passed through the scaffolding surrounding the cathedral, crossed the attic, walked along the magnificent fully reconstructed wooden frame and finally climbed the narrow spiral staircase leading to the very heart of the spire. From this solitary vantage point, the scale of the work achieved unfolded before us. Beneath our feet, Paris was sprawling, noisy and familiar.

“It’s not the largest cathedral in France, but historically, it played a key role in shaping how they were constructed and their size. At Notre-Dame, techniques and systems were developed that would later be used everywhere. It’s a unique testimony to the transformation of roof structures,” said Jost, gesturing toward the vast roof: 1,000 lead rectangles above the nave, each weighing 50 kilos, another 1,000 for the choir, and to support them this incredible “forest,” as the roof structure is known here. “It’s stable, it’s ventilated and it ages admirably. It lasted 800 years. We rebuilt it identically because it was the solution for long-term durability. The ingenuity of those builders was extraordinary.”

Jost searched through his phone. “Ah, there we are.” April 15, 2019. At the time, like thousands of Parisians when they heard about the fire, the newly retired man rushed to the metro and hurried to the riverbanks to witness the unthinkable. He showed us a video he took of the flames dancing through the north gable’s rose window. “I thought it was lost, that everything inside Notre-Dame was burning,” he said. “But, in reality, these rose windows are above the vault. And, except for the transept crossing and a few places, the vault held. Despite the flames, despite the heat, most of what was inside the cathedral was saved. The final battle took place in the north belfry: If the bells had fallen, then yes, it could have ended very badly. As you know, the worst was avoided.”

Everyone remembers where they were that day and the night that enveloped Paris. When, the next day, the French president announced: “We will rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral even more beautifully, and I want it to be finished within five years,” no one believed him. Not even Claudia Ferrazzi, his cultural advisor at the time, whom he tasked with hastily coming up with a rough estimate for a project “within human reach” – meaning that everyone should be able to imagine seeing the cathedral restored in their lifetime. The adviser dug out ongoing restoration files, cost estimates and rates, calculated square meters factoring in complexity, called three architects and sought advice. Five years later, there we were, chatting from an opening in the restored spire, gazing out over Paris.