The Inside Story of Notre-Dame’s Incredible Reconstruction | Philippe Villeneuve | TED

Come with me, back in time. The date is April 15, 2019. That was six years ago. We are a few days before Easter, on a late spring afternoon. We are in Paris on Île de la Cité. Notre-Dame Cathedral has been there for over eight centuries. The day is winding down, and people are heading home from work. Nobody notices the smoke rising from the spire of the cathedral. The time is around 6:30pm. Now the smoke has become more noticeable, and people look up in disbelief. They watch the flames burning through the melting lead roof. Night is falling, and the flames illuminate the cathedral. Now the huge plume of smoke fills the street. There is an acrid smell in the air. Some people start praying, others start chanting. Firefighters are now fighting a relentless battle. And then the spire collapsed into an inferno with a terrible crash. President Macron rushed on the scene. He changed his agenda for this momentous event. Notre-Dame was more important than politics. Not knowing the full extent of the damage, President Macron decided that the cathedral would be rebuilt in five years. Hmph. (Laughter) Donations came in from all sides, ranging from small to huge amounts. They reached the incredible total of 846 million Euro. Why so much generosity? Well, ever since Victor Hugo published his novel "Notre-Dame de Paris" in 1831, the cathedral has moved the entire world. That was almost 200 years ago. Then the cathedral went from print to screen to stage. The silent film "Esmeralda" came out in 1905, followed by many more famous films. Disney made a cartoon character, Quasimodo. Musicals were made about Notre-Dame. Today, Notre-Dame appears in many games and shows, people in every country are touched by Notre-Dame. Incredibly, we may never have known Notre-Dame. Since it was built in 1163, it has been the Cathedral of records. It has the highest vaults ever built, gigantic rose windows and a huge flying buttress. When completed, it was the tallest building in the Christian world. But after being a showcase of human genius, Notre-Dame fell out of favor. It fell out of fashion, cost too much, was vandalized by the French Revolution and became the “Temple of Reason. ” Napoleon was crowned emperor there in 1804, but the building was in a very bad shape. Then, the cathedral was considered for demolition. This is when Victor Hugo published his novel "Notre-Dame de Paris. " It put the cathedral at the heart of France. It put its architecture its culture. So it was decided that the building would be restored. The architect Viollet-le-Duc, my father, won the competition to restore Notre-Dame. He turned it into the building we know today. His “Œuvre Total,” full-scale work, was to create the ideal cathedral imagined by the 19th century.

Notre-Dame continued its course. It came out intact of World War I and World War II. It had funerals for presidents and national tributes. There was a ceremony after the deadly terrorist attacks of 2015. Then came the fateful day, April 15, 2019. The following day, I entered the cathedral in ruins. The light was harsh. The stone was a dark brown, water was streaming down from the vaults, the floor was covered with burned wood. The chairs were scattered by the collapsing vaults. The altar was crushed. But the large golden cross was in the background. The statue of the Virgin of the Pillar, Notre-Dame de Paris, seemed untouched. Through a hole in the vault, molten lead had flowed into the hand of the Christ of the Pieta. That evening I found the rooster that had crashed on the section of the roof. It escaped destruction. It had miraculously come off its axis when the spire collapsed. At that moment, I felt a determination that removed all doubt. It gave me a power and strength I didn't know I had. I always loved Notre-Dame. I visited for the first time at age seven. I loved the symphony of stone and the harmony of light. For me, architecture and music became one that day. When I was 16, I saw an exhibition of the architect Viollet-le-Duc. From that day I wanted to become chief architect of Historical Monuments Society. And why not, one day become the architect of Notre-Dame? The dream came true in 2013. But six years later, in 2019, it became a nightmare. On that evening, on April 15, I made up my mind to fight for Notre-Dame. First secure the site, then supervise the reconstruction with a team of architects. The entire world was watching us. All were anxious to see the cathedral restored. We could not fail in the project of the century, “le chantier du siècle. ” There was a spirit in the air, L’esprit Notre-Dame. It was a unique mix of focus and joy, companionship and sharing. We were all working to save the cathedral, and we were proud to be part of this fantastic journey. I gained admiration and respect for these specialized tradespeople. This created a bond that united all. Two thousand people were busying themselves on this site. We had to invent, design and implement ways to stabilize the building. Master carpenters, glass workers, scaffolders, masons and rope access technicians worked together well. The gables, pillars and high bays had to be shored up quickly. We had to prop up the 28 flying buttresses and cover the vaults with tarps. We had to put nets in the nave, and the high vaults had to be shored up too. We had to sort through the rubble. A cathedral made of steel was built inside the stone cathedral. The building was adorned with scaffolding. The most dangerous part was dismantling the melted scaffolding in the transept. The scaffolding was there for restoration work before the fire. The scaffolders and the rope technicians made their way through the twisted metal. They had to dismantle the steel monster

that could collapse. After days and nights of hard and dangerous work, they succeeded. Once the cathedral was stabilized, the work to rebuild it could finally start. The journeymen followed in the footsteps of the builders of the Middle Ages. They had the same spirit, the same dexterity and the same materials. The stained glass windows and the decorations became lively again. The walls and the vaults started to show the clear golden hue of the stone again. Then an army of carpenters works on the new framework. They used the same materials, the same tools and the same gestures of old. The spire was erect again, and a new golden rooster was placed on top of it to protect the cathedral. The inside of the cathedral was like it had been under Viollet-le-Duc: bright and soft yellow. The stained glass windows and the chapel were vivid again, the chandeliers were shining again, the sculpture had pride to place again. We had to brave a COVID pandemic, deal with pollution by lead, face bad weather, including heatwaves, working under very trying conditions. Why, with all of this, the tradespeople, journeymen and architects worked with patience and expertise. Within the five years’ deadline, they gave Notre-Dame back to Paris, to France and to the world. (Cheers and applause) May the rebirth of Notre-Dame be an example of what human beings are capable of. (Music) Merci beaucoup. Thank you. (Cheers and applause)