Last Updated on December 29, 2025
In April 2019, Notre-Dame Cathedral was badly damaged in a devastating fire. Ever since the flames and smoke subsided, a five-year race began to repair and restore Paris’ crown jewel of Gothic architecture. It mostly re-opened to the public on December 8th, 2024, following an elaborate opening ceremony the evening before.
But what have the renovations consisted in, and who are some of the key people behind this painstaking work to bring back the cathedral from near-destruction? What do these most recent to restore Notre Dame to its full glory have to do with the cathedral’s centuries-long history? And what can we expect to be different– both inside and out– when it re-opens its hallowed doors? Let’s take a closer look.
A Brutal Fire, & Immediate Calls for Emergency Restoration
On an otherwise uneventful spring evening on April 15th, 2019, a fire erupted at Notre-Dame. It quickly destroyed the attic and its old oak beams, most of the roof, and the iconic flamboyant spire, last erected in the 19th century as part of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s ambitious renovations.
The interiors, including numerous stained-glass windows, were also damaged by the blaze, which was only extinguished after firefighters worked to exterminate it for an exhausting 15 hours. It partly burned the north tower belfry, but thankfully the bells themselves were unmarred. The walls of the choir, the nave and two transepts also saw major water damage, but the cathedral’s iconic rose windows were spared.
Meanwhile, the Grand Organ suffered only minor water damage and lead contamination, since lead had melted through the roof and touched parts of the organ.
Thankfully, no one was injured in the fire, although it did send a steady plume of toxic smoke into the air for nearly a full day. No specific cause was found for the outbreak, and it was concluded to be accidental.
A resounding response– and tight timeline to re-opening
In the days immediately after the fire, pledges were made around the world to repair and restore the Cathedral– upwards of $1bn when you count the some $200m pledged by billionaire Francois Pinault, and over $100m pledged by the Bettancourt family, owner of cosmetics giant L’Oréal, among those of other ultra-wealthy donors.
But French laws were soon passed limiting how much individual private funds could be used towards the maintenance or renovation of public monuments, which means that in the end, the Cathedral relied on larger numbers of much smaller donations.
Nevertheless, according to Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris, around 850 million Euros have since been raised from 340,000 global donors towards restoring– and in many respects updating– the masterpiece of high-Gothic architecture.
The announced timeline for the herculean repairs was incredibly tight. In the days following the blaze, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to see the Cathedral re-open to the public within five years, a goal that seemed rather unrealistic at the time, as officials surveyed the terrible damage.
Yet it’s a goal that was, incredibly, largely met. Over the weekend of December 7th to 8th, 2024, Notre-Dame re-opened its centuries-old doors— even though repairs and renovations in some key areas continued throughout 2025.
What’s Being Restored, & by Whom?
Notre-Dame’s wood and lead roof and attic structure were mostly destroyed by the fire. Image: Friends of Notre- Dame de Paris
It’s no exaggeration to say that the repair and restoration efforts over the past five years have been extraordinary. Around 250 companies and roughly 1,000 skilled workers (some sources say 2,000), from master stone masons and cutters to engineers, carpenters, architectural historians, glassmakers, locksmiths and metal specialists, have come together to bring the Cathedral back to vibrant new life.
These have been carried out in three key phases: a safety assessment (immediately following the fire), critical repairs, and finally, restoration. The restoration phase will stretch into 2025 and beyond.
While the details around these efforts are too numerous to cover entirely in this short article, below are a few key milestones-– and you can get a much more detailed picture of the whole process by visiting this page at the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris site.
In 2019 and early 2020, a safety assessment was made and certain artifacts– including biblical statuary and bells from the North Tower belfry, were removed from the site to protect them from cleaning and repair efforts.
After a pause in early repair efforts due to the global pandemic in 2020, work resumed in 2021. Workers began with critical tasks such as removing and replacing burned scaffolding (crucial for supporting the weight carried by Notre-Dame’s historic vaults).
In December 2021, workers dismantled and removed the Grand Organ, which was the repaired and cleaned to remove layers of lead dust left by the fire. Efforts to repair and restore the organ were completed in 2024.
Starting in 2022, the complex task of cleaning the interiors was undertaken— one complicated by the delicate nature of many of the architectural elements and artifacts.
During the spring of 2022, a group of specialized French glassmakers and locksmiths commenced work on cleaning and restoring stained glass at Notre-Dame that had been damaged by the fire. Their efforts were bolstered (through 2023) by the Cologne Cathedral workshop from Germany, which worked on the restoration of four stained-glass windows.
“The biggest problem is contamination from a thick layer of lead dust”, Cologne-based artisan and workshop member Katrin Wittstadt told online magazine DM.
Throughout 2023 and 2024, repair and restoration work accelerated as the Cathedral prepared to re-open in late 2024. Elements that had been damaged include Notre-Dame iconic gargoyles, sculpture-lined portals (doors) depicting biblical scenes, interior paintings (depicting more biblical stories and scenes), sculptures and other artifacts.
The roof has been entirely replaced with new oak and lead elements— a decision that some, including environmental groups, have not been happy with, calling this choice is ” anachronistic” and not sustainable. They argue that choosing a concrete roof would have been a much safer, and sustainable, option. Nevertheless, the choice to more or less replicate the roof that had perished in the fire was confirmed.
In March 2023, Parisians and visitors were able to finally glimpse the new spire, painstakingly rebuilt to match the 19th-century predecessor, and topped with a golden rooster statue. The statue was designed by architect Philippe Villeneuve, who leads renovation efforts.
In May 2024, the cross at the apse, which had been removed for restoration by a workshop based in Normandy, was refitted at the Cathedral.
In early November 2024, it was announced that three newly-cast iron bells would be fitted at Notre-Dame, after several bells were badly damaged in the fire.
According to the Associated Press, these include a larger Olympic bell that was gifted to the Cathedral by a gift from the Paris 2024 organizing committee, and two smaller bells, humorously named “Chiara” and “Carlos”, that are slated to be hung above the main altar and rung during Mass.
In addition to these newest bells, the Cathedral saw the restoration of eight historic bells belonging to the North Tower. They were re-installed in September 2024, and on November 8th, 2024, they rang out in unison for the first time since the fire— in what’s been billed as a welcome and heartening sign of renewal for the Cathedral.
It’s only sometime in 2025 that restoration of the apse and sacristy will conclude, and in 2026, Notre-Dame’s interiors are set to be fitted with new stained glass windows “with Pentacostal themes“, designed by a contemporary artist. Several contemporary artists, including Daniel Buren (the mind behind the stripey black-and-white columns outside the Palais-Royal in Paris) are competing for the honor of creating the new windows.
The 19th-century windows that they’re set to replace, meanwhile, are slated to be moved to a museum collection. More details are expected to emerge following the initial re-opening.
Just How Important Are These Restorations in the Long View?
One big question I and many others have had as we observe the restoration efforts was this one: how significant are they in the context of Notre-Dame’s more than 800-year history?
I asked Dr. Lindsay Cook, an architectural historian and Professor of Architectural History at Penn State University, to weigh in on whether the latest transformation of Notre-Dame merits all the buzz it’s generated. This was her response:
I think it’s been just amazing. I think we haven’t seen anything anywhere like it, or anything like it since the 1840s to 1860s restoration by Viollet-le-Duc and Lassus– and I think even if we take an even longer view, we might even think back to the installation of a new roof in the 13th century. There had been a roof previously in the 12th century, in the late 12th century building, and I even think all the way back to that time period when the cathedral was being really radically transformed, in the 13th century– at a time when in a lot of other places, you might have decided that the cathedral was complete. And so I look at this transformation in the light of those two historical examples. So if you think about the fact that [only] three times in history, has there been such a dramatic transformation to the cathedral– it’s really very important, what’s happened in the last five years.
Cook recently co-translated a book entitled Notre-Dame Cathedral: Nine Centuries of History, which was originally authored in French by Dany Sandron and Andrew Tallon. She underlined the crucial role of Tallon’s earlier efforts to map the entire structure of the cathedral using 3D lasers:
“I think one of the most remarkable things is that there hadn’t been this kind of documentation made before his scan. There was another scan made after his, just focusing on the roof structure. And so it was those two scans kind of put together that the CNRS [National Center for Scientific Research] in Paris ended up being able to use, to kind of reconstitute, use as a model that could serve as the basis for a lot of the architects and sort of companies, drawings and plans.”
Sadly, Tallon died of cancer in 2018, before he was able to witness how his work helped to save Notre-Dame’s precious architectural heritage. But for Cook, who was Tallon’s mentee and later colleague, his legacy in the post-fire rebirth of Notre-Dame is clear.
“I think the reality is that without [his 3D mapping], it would have been very much less likely….that this restoration would have been completed in five years’ time,” she said.
You can read (and listen to) my full interview with Dr. Cook here (exclusively for Donor subscribers to my Substack newsletter). If you haven’t yet signed up, you can benefit from a 7-day free trial and give it a whirl.
A Very Different Experience of Notre-Dame: What’s Changed Inside?
As Heather Stimmler details in her remarkably clear and thorough account of the restoration and re-opening of Notre-Dame, the Cathedral will look quite different when it re-opens– especially the interiors.
Most noticeably, the walls and sculptural elements will appear much brighter, following extensive cleaning efforts– making the Cathedral feel less sombre.
But while Gothic architecture has often been associated with relative darkness, this was not what the cathedral would have looked like when it was first unveiled in the 12th century. In fact, the formerly dark walls were a result of decades of pollution– both from outdoor air and from candle-burning. The restoration efforts have returned brightness and warmth to the sand-colored stone.
{ABOVE: A video showing restoration efforts at Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2024}
In addition, complex new lighting systems will further brighten the space, thanks to the installation of over 1,000 elaborately-placed projectors designed to illuminate certain architectural and design features.
And as Stimmler reports, “there will also be some contemporary touches in the décor”, citing Notre-Dame officials. As a part of the overhaul, visitors will be able to witness a refresh of the liturgical furniture, seating, reliquary cases and vestments, lighting, sound, and other interior elements, Stimmler said.
Even the religious officials are getting a contemporary makeover: they’re set to be furnished with new religious vestments designed by fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. These will notably be worn during the re-opening ceremonies in December 2024. “His priestly outfits feature geometric patterns with sharp lines and primary colours reminiscent of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian”, according to Agence France Presse.
The newly-unveiled interiors are also, Lindsay Cook tells me, set to “reveal a lot of features that were up to this point really invisible, underneath layers and layers of….dirt and grime that had accumulated over the centuries”.
According to this page, these include brightly-colored religious paintings that were first created in the 19th century and located in chapels bordering the choir, as well as 14th-century bas-reliefs depicting the life of Christ.
For a closer look at the interior overhaul of Notre-Dame, see the full piece at Secrets of Paris, and watch the brief video above (via YouTube).
Inaugural Festivities & Events in December
On December 7th, 2024, a massive re-opening ceremony took place at the Cathedral, and was attended by thousands of people, including leaders and dignitaries from around the world.
French President Emmanuel Macron presided over the re-opening, alongside chief architect Philippe Villeneuve and The Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich. They welcomed world leaders and figures including US First Lady Jill Biden and her daughter, US President-elect Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and a host of others.
The Archbishop used his crozier to begin the ceremony, tapping on Notre-Dame’s ornate front portal to signal its opening.
You can watch the opening ceremonies here and below (at YouTube). For just the highlights, see this video (YouTube).
Re-Opening of the Towers, & Reserving Tickets to Visit the Cathedral
In September 2025, Notre-Dame’s iconic towers re-opened to the public following complete restoration. They are now open (reservations highly recommended) for visits 7 days a week. See more at this page.
Visit this page at Paris Je T’Aime for details some of the practical changes visitors can expect when planning an excursion to Notre-Dame since its re-opening, including a new ticketing and reservation system, a change to the visit route, and more.
Why Was This Project Chosen? What Were Some (Quirky) Alternatives?
![that particular spire was part of the building that had become known the world over. That was the building that people, you know, something on the order of 13 million people before the fire, visited each year, and so that spire constituted part of the image of Notre-Dame. So for that reason, I think …. it makes just as much sense to put this back together as the rest of the building that was damaged. Even though it's true [that] Gothic cathedrals are precarious in some ways, and so that's one of the reasons that they have made such an effort to safeguard it for the future, righ](https://www.parisunlocked.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notre-dame-crystal-spire.jpeg)
A project aiming to fully restore Notre-Dame to its “last complete, coherent and known state, as it stood on the morning of the fire“, was unanimously approved by the French National Heritage and Architecture Commission (CNPA) in early July 2020. This included an agreement to create an exact replica of the 19th-century spire that had perished in the blaze.
For some, this seemed an overly safe and un-ambitious move. Why not choose something more contemporary– something that would usher the cathedral into a 21st-century guise?
Proposals from various architects had flooded in prior to the commission settling on a faithful restoration of the Cathedral. One architect proposed to work with the crystal maker Baccarat to erect a crystal spire that would be illuminated from within at night, while French designer Mathieu Lehanneur imagined replacing a spire with a “monumental permanent flame covered with golden leaves”, telling design magazine Dezeen “I love this idea of a frozen moment in the history that can remains for centuries”.
Ultimately, though, these adventurous restoration concepts lost out to a staunchly conservationist one that sought to wholly restore the Cathedral to its pre-fire state, including by using wood to rebuild the roof– and even bring back some of its lost 19th-century elements.
This wasn’t really surprising, given that Notre-Dame is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and French laws thus call for renovation and repair efforts to conserve the site’s specific character as much as possible.
I asked Lindsay Cook to further explain the choice– including the decision to reconstruct the flamboyant spire from Viollet-le-Duc that was delicate enough to be quickly consumed by flames. Why insist on reconstructing such a vulnerable architectural feature?
“[T]hat particular spire was part of the building that had become known the world over. That was the building that people, you know, something on the order of 13 million people before the fire, visited each year, and so that spire constituted part of the image of Notre-Dame”, she explained.
Cook went on to say that while Gothic cathedrals are in some ways quite precarious, their importance in historical architectural terms justifies the extreme care that must go into preserving them. However, she also refuted the idea that this latest revival of Notre-Dame meant the monument was stuck in the past:
“[Seeing the project unfold over the last five years, and seeing the many contemporary companies using contemporary workers to work in this more traditional way, I see this as, in the end, being an example of a contemporary architectural project, if anything…using all of the technology that’s been used in the last five years to restore the cathedral identically, has been absolutely a contemporary project. We didn’t have this kind of data in the 19th century, when the cathedral was being restored so dramatically the last time. And so to me, it may look traditional, it may look medieval in a lot of ways, and Gothic Revival in other ways. But at the same time, I think it’s also been a contemporary project.”
From Cook’s perspective, then, the newly restored Notre-Dame is very much be a 21st-century version of the medieval marvel. A contemporary restoration that brings all the incredible skill and centuries-rich knowledge of architects, masons, engineers and a host of others to the forefront– and that preserves the Cathedral’s most outstanding features.
I, for one, can’t wait to re-discover it with fresh eyes. And in fact, our Associate Editor Rachel Naismith took a whirl through the newly-opened cathedral in early 2025, and offers an inside look at what’s new and interesting here (at YouTube).
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Courtney Traub is the Founder and Editor of Paris Unlocked. She’s a longtime Paris resident who now divides her time (as well as she can manage) between the French capital and Norwich, UK. Co-author of the 2012 Michelin Green Guide to Northern France & the Paris Region, she has been interviewed as an expert on Paris and France by the BBC, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Le Figaro, Matador Network and other publications. Courtney has also written and reported stories for media outlets including Radio France Internationale, The Christian Science Monitor, Women’s Wear Daily and The Associated Press. In addition to going down various rabbit holes of curiosity when it comes to French culture, history, food and art, Courtney is a scholar of literature and cultural history whose essays and reviews have appeared in various forums.
