The day after the inferno struck Notre Dame on April 15, 2019, Philippe Villeneuve walked despondently into the stays of his cathedral. Smoke choked the spring air, the spire lay in rubble, and charred beams littered the nave. “We had misplaced the framework, the roof, the spire, and three sections of the vault,” Villeneuve, its chief architect since 2013, mentioned.

But simply hours earlier, President Emmanuel Macron had issued a rare decree: Notre Dame would rise once more — in simply 5 years. “There was one sole (downside),” Villeneuve mentioned in an interview with The Related Press, “the deadline.”

It felt unimaginable. But as Villeneuve stepped by the wreckage with doubts in his thoughts, he was caught without warning. Terrifying because it was to see the charred stays of the 861-year-old Gothic treasure, a beacon of hope emerged.

“All of the stained-glass home windows have been spared, the good organ, the furnishings, the work -— every thing was intact,” he realized. “It was doable.”

A historic restoration

Macron’s decree grew to become the driving power behind essentially the most distinguished restoration in fashionable French historical past. The announcement sparked unprecedented international help, with donations shortly nearing $1 billion.

But, different obstacles got here in waves. First, the hearth’s rapid aftermath introduced a lead contamination disaster that halted work for a month, and woke the world as much as the hazards of lead mud. Then got here the pandemic, forcing employees off website. Climate, too, appeared to conspire, with heavy rains delaying the elimination of the scorched scaffolding that had fused right into a skeletal reminder of the catastrophe.

However Villeneuve endured, working together with his workforce on what he referred to as the “presidential constructing website” to redefine what was doable below extraordinary situations. He lobbied for the ultimate reopening date to be delayed from April of this yr to align with Dec. 8 — a Catholic holy day celebrating Mary’s conception with out sin — a symbolic alternative that felt each achievable and sacred.

His irreverent humorousness — delivered amid expletives, and with a childlike grin that belies his 61 years and his silver hair — appears to have carried him by the relentless 5 years of labor.

However because the reopening quick approaches, Villeneuve confessed his lingering nervousness.

“I’m not calm — by no means. I’m utterly stressed,” he mentioned. “This was not nearly restoring a constructing. This was about restoring the center of France.”

Extra lovely than ever

There have been positives. The hearth badly scarred the cathedral but additionally revealed its hidden brilliance — with many who glimpsed the restored interiors final week saying they’re extra majestic than earlier than the disaster.

“It’s horrible to say (of the hearth), however each cloud has a silver lining,” Villeneuve mentioned, smiling. “The stone is luminous now. It virtually glows.”

The extraordinary warmth and falling particles left behind a movie of poisonous lead mud, requiring meticulous cleansing of each floor. Sculptures, partitions and organ pipes have been painstakingly stripped of grime and soot, exposing a brightness unseen for hundreds of years.

Strolling by the medieval wood beams of the reconstructed framework, so difficult it is called the “forest,” or beneath the newly restored spire, Villeneuve felt the work was so seamless it appeared as if the inferno would possibly by no means have occurred, he mentioned.

“That’s success,” Villeneuve mentioned. “If I could make (cathedral guests) doubt there was ever a fireplace, then I’ve erased the horror.”

Inked devotion

Whereas his restoration adhered faithfully to the historic designs of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Villeneuve discovered a deeply private solution to mark his connection to Notre Dame.

He knew he couldn’t go away his title etched into the stone, so he selected to get an extended, daring tattoo operating down his forearm, calling himself “Rock and Roll” for it.

It depicts Viollet-le-Duc’s unique spire — the one which collapsed within the fireplace — not the newly restored model topped with the golden phoenix cum rooster.

Complementing it’s one other tattoo over his chest, impressed by the cathedral’s stained glass, forming a rosary design. “This wasn’t about me,” he mentioned, “however I’ve left my mark in my very own manner.”

Viollet-le-Duc’s Nineteenth-century spire, a meticulous recreation of a medieval aesthetic, stays on the coronary heart of the restoration. “He was a genius,” Villeneuve mentioned of the architect. “My function was to make sure that imaginative and prescient endured.”

Lingering thriller of the hearth

Whereas Notre Dame’s restoration has proceeded with outstanding precision, one query nonetheless looms over Villeneuve: the reason for the hearth, a irritating investigation into one of many largest mysteries in France in dwelling reminiscence. Regardless of in depth efforts, cash and curiosity, authorities have nonetheless not recognized the blaze’s origin. Preliminary theories instructed {an electrical} brief circuit, probably linked to ongoing renovation work, however no definitive trigger has been established.

The lingering uncertainty nonetheless troubles Villeneuve because the cathedral nears its reopening. It’s private, significantly as he was in cost when the hearth broke out.

“It’s one thing that haunts you. Not the duty for the hearth — I do know very properly that I bear no private duty for it,” he mentioned. “At the very least, I believe so.”

“Nevertheless it annoys me to not know.”

Within the wake of the catastrophe, classes have been realized, and steps taken to make sure Notre Dame’s safety sooner or later. Villeneuve and his workforce have put in cutting-edge fireplace security methods within the cathedral to forestall an analogous disaster. The attic, now divided into three fireplace compartments—choir, transept, and nave—options superior thermal cameras, smoke detectors, and a revolutionary water-misting system. Not like conventional sprinklers, this method releases a advantageous mist of water droplets designed to extinguish flames whereas minimizing harm to the delicate wooden and stone.

“The mist saturates the air, lowering oxygen ranges to smother fires with out harming the wooden or stone,” Villeneuve defined. “These are essentially the most superior fireplace security methods in any French cathedral. We needed to be taught from what occurred. We owe it to the longer term.”

Triumph of Notre Dame

Standing on the banks of the Seine, Notre Dame’s spire as soon as once more reaching into the Parisian sky, Villeneuve allowed himself a second of quiet satisfaction as he took questions and compliments from passersby — having fun with his new “celeb” standing. For Villeneuve, the journey — his life’s work, shortly earlier than he retires — has been as private because it was monumental.

“The cathedral burned, she collapsed, and I collapsed the identical day,” he mentioned, talking of the monument in visceral, human phrases. “I progressively acquired again up as she acquired again up. Because the scars started closing, I felt higher. Now I really feel prepared to depart the hospital.”

He instructed that the nation’s wounds are additionally therapeutic because the reopening approaches. With 15 million guests anticipated per yr — 3 million greater than earlier than the hearth — Villeneuve’s work continues to resonate, each in stone and spirit.

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For extra of AP’s protection on Notre Dame, go to https://apnews.com/hub/notre-dame-cathedral