As we approach the four-year anniversary of the conflagration we will have a few posts on the restoration and reopening efforts.
From ScienceAlert, March 20:
Notre Dame's Fire Reveals a Major Surprise Hidden in Its Architecture
For all the damage that the 2019 Notre Dame fire wrought, it presented archaeologists in Paris with a unique opportunity to peer into the landmark's history.
Parts of the famous cathedral that were concealed for centuries are now being picked apart and put back together, providing a window into the architectural innovations that once made this 32-meter-high (105 feet) building the tallest cathedral in its age. [note: not sure what they are measuring; the towers are 69 m (226 ft) high; the roof of the nave 35 meters (115 feet )]
That height, it turns out, is largely thanks to the iron that runs through the majestic structure's veins.
Archaeologists have uncovered thousands of metal staples in various parts of the cathedral, some dating back to the early 1160s.
The findings suggest the extensive use of iron in masonry is not as modern as experts once assumed. Medieval builders working on Notre Dame were employing the architectural technique long before restoration works started in the 19th century.
"Notre Dame is now unquestionably the first known Gothic cathedral where iron was massively used to bind stones as a proper construction material," archaeologists working in Paris conclude....
....MUCH MORE
One of the mini-miracles of the rebuilding effort is the fact the reconstruction architects were gifted with laser precise measurements of the Cathedral. From our April 2019 post:
By now you've probably heard about Professor Tallon and his laser, the
billions of measurements and the images created from the data:
The popular reference has been the National Geographic article from June 22, 2015, updated April 15, 2019:
Which NatGeo has put in front of the paywall.
The Atlantic also has an overview:
The Images That Could Help Rebuild Notre-Dame CathedralProfessor Tallon died last November at the age of 49, marked by the Society of Architectural Historians with "Obituary: Prof. Andrew J. Tallon, 1969-2018" and by the University of Liverpool's Tracing the Past project who posted "In memoriam – Andrew Tallon" with links to a couple of his papers and to the Mapping Gothic France website whose Space, Time and Narrative portals are quite instructive.
Vassar College is maintaining his academic website where some of the real treasures are to be found, with News, Publications, and Projects having little Easter Eggs to be discovered by those interested in the hunt.
Among the Projects: