It is likely that you recall how, in 2019, a fire consumed much of the city’s premier Gothic cathedral.  That title does not disparage the Gothic magnificence of Sainte-Chapelle, owing to a technicality: a cathedral is the seat of a bishop, and that status belongs to Notre Dame de Paris.  Sainte-Chapelle was a private chapel, perhaps the most glorious one in Europe.

          Notre Dame has endured much since ground was broken for it more than 800 years ago.  It has been ravaged by floods, fires, wars, desecration and neglect.  It has undergone numerous modifications as well as restorations.  Some of the changes, especially those made under the supervision of the 19th Century architect Viollet-le-duc, are decried by proponents of historical purity (if such a thing exists) to this day.

         The latest fire was catastrophic.  It seemed even worse when we could watch it burn on video, over and over, and feel just as helpless to save it every time that we witnessed the conflagration anew.  Once the oaken roof beams ignited, the blaze’s heat melted the lead supports and the spire collapsed. France mourned and then united in the tremendous effort to raise the cathedral from the ashes.  An exact replica of the spire, or flèche, crowns it once again.  Notre Dame was reopened to the public in December 2024.


There are three portals on the front façade.  This is the Portal of the Virgin.  Hundreds of statues cover the cathedral, designed to teach Biblical stories and Christian doctrine to the illiterate medieval peasantry.


Notre Dame has three rose windows, installed in the 12th and 13th Centuries.  None of them was damaged in the 2019 fire.  

The Crown of Thorns is one of the most venerated items saved from the fire.  Sylvain Dubuisson is the creator of this new reliquary for it, inspired by Byzantine iconography.  It is made of gilded cedar wood and glass blocks, and is about three meters tall.  

The cathedral contains statues from various eras.  This Saint George is the work of Emmanuel Fremiet, a prolific 19th Century French sculptor who received many civic commissions.


         The rebuilding is not quite complete, and its refurbishment is not without its critics.  It is true that Notre Dame does not look exactly as it did in my youth, when I first was overwhelmed by its age and beauty.  There is a new bronze and marble altar with an unadorned, contemporary look.  The font and lectern also have simple, modern lines.  Yet, to me, the essence of Notre Dame is immutable, and not at all dependent on the grime of centuries.