Experts in medieval building techniques from across Europe have arrived in France on a mission to prove their skills can be called upon to reconstruct Notre Dame’s oak frame roof in its original form, reports The Times.
The carpenters are using historical techniques to build a truss of the sort that was burnt in the fire last year in an attempt to defeat modernisers calling for the cathedral’s new frame to be made from metal or concrete.
They have set up a workshop in the grounds of a château in Normandy, as the French National Commission for Heritage and Architecture prepares this week to set out its proposals for Notre Dame’s reconstruction.
President Macron’s pledge to rebuild the 12th-century cathedral in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics has given rise to debate between two camps: “ancients” and “moderns”. The former want to rebuild Notre Dame as it was. The latter want to use modern methods and would like to replace the 19th-century spire with a 21st-century creation.
Much of the argument centres on the roof frame, which was made from 1,300 oak trees, many of which were cut down in about 1170, early in the two centuries of the cathedral’s construction.
Carpenters Without Borders, the French association that has organised the workshop, argues that the frame should be rebuilt in the original manner, with axes used to hew the oaks, as in the 13th century.
Read more of this report from The Times (subscription required).