Notre-Dame de Paris

On April 15, 2019, one of the world’s most iconic and beloved architectural masterpieces, Notre-Dame Cathedral, burst into flames.   As Paris and the world watched in disbelief, the fire that broke out under the eaves of the wooden roof engulfed the cathedral’s spire and most of the roof over the course of the night.

In the days that followed, I was reminded of the prescient relevance of French author Victor Hugo—the supreme poet of French Romanticism in the 1800s.  Born in 1802 in Besancon, France, Hugo’s poetry, plays and passionate historical novels expressed strong emotions concerning the experiences of the common people during the turbulent times in which he lived and wrote.  He died in 1885 in Paris.  

In The Greater Journey:  Americans in Paris (1830-1900), biographer David McCullough writes of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel, Notre-Dame de Paris—published when the Gothic cathedral was already an ancient structure in desperate need of repair. Better known in English publications as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, its popular success stirred new interest in all that Hugo adored about the ancient cathedral’s Gothic architecture—“its spires, steeples, and pointed arches, its dramatic use of light and dark, for the sense of the sublime in its stained glass, the grotesque in its gargoyles.”

Across the ages, pedestrians in Paris have walked the circular network of arrondissement (neighborhoods) that spread out from the city’s historic Gothic core where this catholic cathedral consecrated to the Virgin Mary has survived over 850 years of political, social and religious upheaval. In 1163, Notre-Dame’s cornerstone was laid by Pope Alexander III on the eastern end of the Île-de-la-Cité—a natural island in the Seine River where Paris was born in 52 B.C. under the Romans.  For Hugo, the medieval cathedral Parisians call “Our Lady” was a sublime and majestic work of art.  Angered by “the countless defacements and mutilations to which men and time have subjected that venerable monument,” he wrote a novel that reminded the world of the cathedral’s historic importance.

Set in 15th-century Paris, Hugo’s classic The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a tragic love triangle set in a city teeming with noble festivals, mob uprisings, and public executions that all take place around Notre-Dame.  Two chapters are devoted to Hugo’s descriptions of the Gothic cathedral.  From the dizzying heights of the bell tower where Quasimodo attempts to shelter his love, the gypsy Esmeralda, Hugo allows the reader to gaze down on the city of Paris and into the very soul of Notre-Dame. 

Hugo intended the book to be a summoning call for historic preservation. In the introduction, he wrote, “We must, if it be possible, inspire the nation with a love of its national architecture.  That is one of the chief aims of this book.”  McCullough writes, “Hugo saw Notre-Dame in particular and Gothic architecture overall, as history writ large in stone before the advent of the printing press.”

Ironically, the same week of the tragic fire that destroyed the roof of Notre-Dame and its spire, PBS began a six-part Masterpiece Theater adaptation of Victor Hugo’s later novel, Les Misérables—a passionate classic as relevant today as it was in Hugo’s lifetime. Hugo’s preface, written in 1862, reads.

“So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.”

In 2017, the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris were planning efforts to save the cathedral’s basic structure that had been weakened by pollution, rain, and time. After the devastating fire in 2019, overwhelming support from the international community enabled the organization’s planned restoration efforts to get underway at a monumental scale. 

The 02/2022 and 12/2024 issues of National Geographic featured photographic images and stories updating readers on the remarkable restoration efforts of workers involved in rebuilding the icon. On December 7, 2024, the cathedral’s doors once again reopened. The archbishop of Paris spoke of the power of that moment—“In a society in which we’re often tempted by despair, reopening the cathedral is a sign of hope. That moment should be as powerful and memorable…as the sight of Notre Dame on fire was to the millions who saw it in Paris and around the planet.  It will be ‘a kind of gust of joy that will, I hope, fill the world.’”

This month, Michel Picaud, President of Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris pointed out, “Even though our doors are open, we have a lot more to do…. When you give, you also give a piece of yourself to the patrimony of Paris, of France and of the world.  Your concern, your spirit becomes part of the construction itself.  You become a part of the Cathedral.” 

To learn more about ongoing restoration projects at Notre-Dame de Paris and ways to support those efforts visit www.friendsofnotredamedeparis.org/donate.