The fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris came as a shock, not just to France but to the entire western world. It is four years since the fire that broke out in the early evening hours of April 15, 2019 and was soon broadcast live on the evening news across Europe. The image of the crossing tower collapsing in the flames, whose burning skeleton fell into the interior of the church building, has become a symbol of collective memory.
After initial debates, the reconstruction got underway very resolutely, and the reopening is to be celebrated next year, even if it ends on December 8th. This is what the cathedral looked like before the fire, only just restored and cleaned and equipped with the technology, the lack of which had favored the fire of 2019. It was created in the immediate vicinity of the crossing tower made of wood and lead.
This is exactly how the crossing tower will rise again, the top of which rises 93 meters above ground level, higher than the two stone towers of the west facade. The image of Notre-Dame has been impressed in this way and no other, especially the twelve million tourists who were last recorded annually. And this is exactly how it can be seen on the tablets that visitors to the interactive exhibition “Notre-Dame de Paris. Round the World Tour of a Cathedral” at the Maison de France.
After stops in Dubai, Shanghai and Washington, it is now Berlin’s turn to delve into the building history of Notre-Dame. It is a true marvel that the tablets were programmed at the cutting edge of what “augmented reality” can currently offer.
For this purpose, the ground floor of the Maison de France has been transformed into a total installation, with transparent photographs of the stained glass windows, with large photographs of the cathedral and with partial models such as that of the crossing tower. But all of this is just a backdrop, because 15 stations want to be controlled in a tour, which then appear on the tablet after the appropriate scan and reveal everything worth knowing about the construction and the many hundred years of history of the cathedral. A timeline on each picture helps to move from the beginnings in 1163 to the present day and to follow the change of the building.
The coronation of Napoleon was great cinema
The virtual tour through place and time was produced by the specialized company “Histovery”, whose bosses came to Berlin for the opening and assured that the naturally hypothetical representations, especially from the early days of Notre-Dame, had been approved by scientific advisors. So no Hollywood fantasies, but always a “So it could have been”.
And there was already great cinema in the past, for example at the coronation of Napoleon in December 1804. This has been handed down through the famous painting by Jacques-Louis David, of which an excerpt accompanies the corresponding station in the exhibition. As you walk around, it becomes clear that it was only in the middle of the 19th century that the cathedral got the appearance that is admired around the world today. The installations from the baroque period were eliminated. The crossing tower was designed by the architect Viollet-le-Duc, who was entrusted with the restoration, and executed in 1859 in place of the dilapidated Gothic original that had been torn down decades earlier.
This 19th century creation of 500 tons of oak beams and 250 tons of lead sheeting is being rebuilt, the supporting vaults having since been restored. In general, and this is also the message of this exhibition, the restoration of the cathedral will be completed on schedule, also thanks to the most modern tools. The animation on the tablets impressively shows how much effort the medieval builders put up stone vaults at dizzying heights.
Whether the master builder of the 12th century cathedral – nobody knows his name – actually made architectural drawings under a wooden shelter, as shown on the tablet, remains to be seen. In any case, the Maison de France is a great spectacle, in a setting that serves only one purpose: to make you want to visit the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the symbol of Paris, soon to be restored more beautifully than ever. Now more than ever.
