Comment: Complicating the forthcoming restoration is the fact that Notre-Dame is a living, breathing, functioning monument
After the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to rebuild the church, a promise followed by an outpouring of pledges of money from private individuals and companies, in France and elsewhere.
Only after this basic work is well underway should any consideration be given to replacing the 19th-century spire, which dramatically collapsed. The restoration ahead raises questions about what history to preserve. The spire that stood on Notre-Dame on Monday dated to 1859 and replaced a 13th-century spire that was dismantled in 1786. It was not a copy of the medieval spire, for which there were no extant plans.
While some cultures and countries, such as Japan, do rebuild their historic monuments anew in the style of the past, they prioritise the endurance of the craft over the permanence of the material and have regulated the techniques for such reconstructions. Western culture typically places greater value on the original material, which is why people pay hundreds of millions of dollars for an authentic da Vinci rather than a good copy of the Mona Lisa.
Thus, if the spire is to be replaced, it should be built in a contemporary style that both harmonises with the extant monument and also clearly distinguishes itself as a product of our time.
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