Work starts on restoring Notre Dame cathedral’s stained-glass windows, damaged in the 2019 fire – ABC News

Npressfetimg 367.png

Work has started to restore the stained-glass windows at the Notre Dame cathedral, more than three years after a fire destroyed its roof and collapsed its spire.

The windows were heavily soiled with smoke and dust during the blaze in April 2019, which blocked external light and obscured the range of colours of the 170-year-old glass.

Eight glass manufactures from France have begun the painstaking operation to clean and restore 39 high windows in the medieval cathedral’s nave, choir, transept and sacristy.

The glass-cleaning process involves gently rubbing the surface with cotton soaked in water and ethanol, a delicate and repetitive process aimed at collecting deposit without damaging the window.

Flavie Serriere Vincent-Petit, head of the eponymous stained-glass company south-west of Paris, has been given the task of restoring 22 windows.

“There is a major cleaning phase, to wash off both the blaze’s dust and the dirt resulting from human breath, as well as candle soot, so we can put the windows back into place and give back full brightness to Notre Dame,” she said.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.A timeline of the Notre Dame fire

The workshop of Cologne Cathedral in Germany is also helping with the reconstruction by restoring the stained-glass of four high windows.

The cathedral has been closed for restoration since the April 2019 fire gutted its roof and sent its spire crashing through the vaults below.

The aim is to reopen the cathedral by 2024 when France hosts the Olympic Games.

Notre Dame’s stained-glass windows were created by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, who also designed the 96-metre spire.

Reuters

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-04/notre-dame-cathedral-stained-glass-windows-to-be-restored/101403982

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *