This month marks the third anniversary of the fire that took hold of Notre-Dame, Paris, on the night of 15th–16th April 2019, probably the result of an electrical fault. Would the shock of seeing flames rising through the cathedral be as traumatic if it happened now, after two years of the covid-19 pandemic and the horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine?[1] It has been a testing time for cultural heritage. Violent storms on Australia’s east coast at the end of February caused widespread damage; at Lismore Regional Gallery, New South Wales, flood waters reached the ceiling of the first-floor galleries. At least Notre-Dame’s status as a national symbol as well as a World Heritage Site meant that financial and practical support on an unprecedented scale were promised within only a few hours of the fire being extinguished. The extent of the damage was summarised in an article in this Magazine in August 2019.1 The principal losses were the thirteenth-century roof and its flèche, designed by Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and erected in 1859 as part of his restoration of Notre-Dame. Although the building is standing, with the exception of some of the cells of the vaults and the crossing vault, which were destroyed by falling timbers, its structure was weakened by the heat of the flames (which reached 800–1200 degrees celsius) and the water used to extinguish them. The cathedral’s contents – the liturgical furnishings, reliquaries and works of art, some 2,000 objects in all – were saved. The restoration has been hampered by pollution caused by toxic lead dust, a result of the lead covering of the roofs having melted. The teams working on site have to wear special protective clothing, including boots, gloves and a mask with an air pump (Fig.2). There is currently no access for scholars, or any other members of the public.

The major battles surrounding the future of the cathedral, as highlighted in our 2019 article, have largely been won. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, President Emmanuel Macron declared that the restoration would be completed by 2024 – in time for the Paris Olympic Games – and that an international competition would be held for a ‘modern architectural gesture’ to replace Viollet-le-Duc’s flèche. Although the cathedral’s chief architect, Philippe Villeneuve, and the association Les Scientifiques pour Notre-Dame, formed by a group of young scholars, including Arnaud Ybert, Maxime L’Héritier, Olivier de Châlus and Philippe Bernardi, together with another 1,170 signatories, immediately published an open letter in Le Figaro warning that such an intervention would contravene the Charters of Venice of 1964 and of Krakow of 2000 and endanger Notre-Dame’s position as a World Heritage Site, Macron did not abandon the idea until July 2020. It has now been agreed that the flèche should be rebuilt as it was. The Commission nationale du patrimoine et de l’architecture has approved a plan to rebuild the roof with a wooden structure, as before, made by a semi-industrial process. However, the five-year time scale remains in place, although it seems increasingly likely that the definition of ‘completion’ of the restoration will be stretched to mean only that the building will be at least partly back in use by 2024.

Phase one of the restoration, securing the building, has now been achieved. The debris that fell to the floor has been removed, a task that initially, while the vault was unsecured, was done by robots. These remains have been sifted and analysed. Centering and frames have been erected to secure the windows; the vault’s ribs and transverse arches have been secured; and the stained glass, with the exception of the three rose windows, has been removed for repair. The interior is now fully scaffolded, a striking sight (Fig.1).