The crypt of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris reopens

The archaeological crypt at Notre Dame Cathedral was opened to visitors for the first time since the 2019 fire. According to the Kultura TV channel, it houses an exhibition dedicated to the history of the cathedral and the role played in it by the writer Victor Hugo and the architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc.

At one time, Hugo's novel Notre Dame Cathedral (1831), recognized as a masterpiece of world literature during the writer's lifetime, brought back interest in the grandiose house of prayer, which was nearly demolished. A few years after the publication of the book and its translation into different European languages, the restoration of the historic church began, which was headed by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. An incredibly difficult part of the work was the reconstruction of the ancient spire - as well as the vault of the cathedral with a bizarre design, reminiscent of the structure of a bat's wing.
The exhibition in the crypt of Notre Dame Cathedral will run the remainder of this year and the entire next year. Although the crypt itself was not damaged during the fire by the grace of the Lord God, its walls had to be cleaned of lead dust several times.
“In the 19th century, the building of the cathedral was in a deplorable state, since the revolutions, the statues of the kings were destroyed, the main structure weakened. Victor Hugo himself was upset by the state of the historical legacy. Therefore, as a writer, he fought with destroyers, those who then wanted to take over the old buildings in order to turn them into quarries. And his novel contributed to making this cathedral a national monument, ”says exhibition curator Anne de Modnard.