Notre-Dame de Paris nearly lost on 15 April 2019 and the restoration of the cathedral

5 years ago, on 15 April 2019, humanity nearly lost one of the greatest structures of our era, the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. They say that no more than half an hour remained before the masterpiece of a church was destroyed.

The first stone of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Paris is believed to have been laid in 1163. Long before Victor Hugo immortalised Notre-Dame de Paris in his Gothic novel, royalty were married here and the rulers of France were crowned, and Joan of Arc was beatified here.

It was Notre-Dame that Napoleon chose as the place to crown himself Emperor in 1804.

Happily, today we can see the restoration of the cathedral almost complete, the building appearing in an almost authentic form, if we do not count the new figure of a golden cockerel on its spire, with a reliquary holding thorns from the Crown of Thorns.

Report a translation error

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Notre-Dame de Paris nearly lost on 15 April 2019 and the restoration of the cathedral

Read more

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s