National Geographic - UK (2022-02)

they shattered stained glass, took axes to a statue

of Jesus, smashed one of the Virgin Mary. But

they were really after the archbishop of Paris,

who wasn’t there—and so they sacked his pal-

ace, which stood south of the church, facing the

Seine River. Then they set fire to it. The palace

is gone now. A 250-foot-tall construction crane

stands on that spot.

There’s a drawing of the scene that night,

February 14, 1831, viewed from the Quai de

Montebello, across the Seine. It was made by

Eugène- Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc—the man

who, 13 years later, would undertake a 20-year

restoration of the cathedral. Viollet-le-Duc was

only 17 when he witnessed the mob attack. In his

hasty pencil sketch, agitated stick figures swarm

The fire in 1831

spared the

Cathedral of Notre

Dame itself. The

rioters scrambled

up the roof and

toppled a giant

iron cross;

Charles Barbero of

Carpenters Without

Borders puts a finishing

touch on a replica of

one of Notre Dame’s

roof trusses. The

volunteer group built

the truss in a week

using only medieval

tools, hewing each

beam from a single oak

log. The oak frame-

work destroyed in the

fire is to be restored as

it was—with an assist

from sawmills.

44 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC