Notre Dame Cathedral, Back to Life After 2019 Fire

Greetings from Paris. Notre Dame, of course, is not to be missed, but, in compare-and-contrast mode, I also visited the Basilica of Saint-Denis, the small cathedral and necropolis for every French king and queen from the tenth century to Louis XVIII.

Like everyone else, I was horrified when Notre Dame came close to collapse on April 15, 2019, after its firetrap wooden roof caught fire. Never a favorite — that would be the cathedral in Chartres — Notre Dame is still the avatar of French history. I write “never a favorite” since French history isn’t mine. And it’s more often than not a brutal thing. The cathedral’s last substantial renovation, from 1844 to 1864, impressed me as unsatisfying. Its innovations, among them the gargoyles, the grotesques, the dinky spire, and the redecorated side chapels, imagined what medieval architects might have done. Most of the sculpture we see today is Gothic Revival.

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Greetings from Paris. Notre Dame, of course, is not to be missed, but, in compare-and-contrast mode, I also visited the Basilica of Saint-Denis, the small cathedral and necropolis for every French king and queen from the tenth century to Louis XVIII.

Like everyone else, I was horrified when Notre Dame came close to collapse on April 15, 2019, after its firetrap wooden roof caught fire. Never a favorite — that would be the cathedral in Chartres — Notre Dame is still the avatar of French history. I write “never a favorite” since French history isn’t mine. And it’s more often than not a brutal thing. The cathedral’s last substantial renovation, from 1844 to 1864, impressed me as unsatisfying. Its innovations, among them the gargoyles, the grotesques, the dinky spire, and the redecorated side chapels, imagined what medieval architects might have done. Most of the sculpture we see today is Gothic Revival.