French leaders and architects are at odds over how to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral.
After the historic and religious landmark was damaged in a fire Monday, the question is: Should it be restored to its former condition, or should it include contemporary reforms?
“Something contemporary will be safer and faster to rebuild,” said architect Christiane Schmuckle-Mollard, who was involved with the restoration of Strasbourg’s cathedral, to the New York Times.
French culture minister Franck Riester said how to rebuild would ultimately fall to the state, but encouraged discussions about what the reconstruction would look like.
“We mustn’t say to ourselves, by dogmatism, that we must absolutely redo the cathedral as it was,” said Riester. “We won’t decide to do something modern or something new just for the sake of it.”
In particular, there is debate over Notre Dame’s famous spire, which collapsed in the fire.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who said the cathedral would be restored within five years, signaled he could get on board with constructing a new spire with “a contemporary architectural gesture.” But others don’t want contemporary touches included in the reconstruction.
For example, French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte argued that a “pastiche” of the fallen spire would be “grotesque,” during a radio interview with Franceinfo.
Meanwhile, right-wing candidate for the Republican Party François-Xavier Bellamy argued: “Before proclaiming ourselves builders, let us recognize first that we are inheritors.”
“Notre-Dame de Paris does not belong to us,” he said. “We are the first to see it burn: Our only duty is to restore her, with the patience that an absolute masterpiece requires, to pass it on the way we received it.”
Marine Le Pen, the head of the far-right National Gathering party, also has opposed suggestions from Prime Minister Édouard Philippe to hold an architectural contest. In response to one of Philippe’s tweets on the matter, Le Pen tweeted the hashtag #Don’tTouchNotreDame.
A delegation from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization met with Macron on Friday, and concluded that the cathedral could be modified while preserving the building’s “integrity and authenticity,” the Associated Press reports.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that a French judicial police official said investigators have conducted a preliminary assessment of the cathedral as they continue to investigate. According to the official, an electrical short circuit was the likely culprit behind the fire earlier this week.
Construction of the cathedral began in 1163 and wrapped up in 1345. The cathedral endured some destruction from the French Revolution during the 1790s but was repaired starting in 1845.
It wouldn’t be the first time one one of Paris’ most well-known landmarks got a modern facelift. President François Mitterand initiated the Grand Louvre project in 1981 to modernize the famous museum, previously a royal estate first built around 1190. The museum was also given a new entrance: a controversial glass pyramid. Architect I.M. Pei has said that he predicted 90% of people were opposed to the pyramid when it was first unveiled to the public.
[Opinion: The heartbreaking fire at Notre Dame]
