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RESTORATION—IN MEDIEVAL STYLE
A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF RESTORATION: Jeffrey Schaeffer reports in AP News, May 30, 2023, “If time travel was possible, medieval carpenters would surely be amazed to see how woodworking techniques they pioneered in building Notre Dame Cathedral more than 800 years ago are being used again today to rebuild the world-famous monument’s fire-ravaged roof.“
Schaeffer continues, “Certainly the reverse is true for the modern-day carpenters using medieval-era skills. Working with hand axes to fashion hundreds of tons of oak beams for the framework of Notre Dame’s new roof has, for them, been like rewinding time. It’s given them a new appreciation of their predecessors’ handiwork that pushed the architectural envelope back in the 13th century.”
Schaeffer recounts, “‘It’s a little mind-bending sometimes,’ says Peter Henrikson, one of the carpenters. He says there are times when he’s whacking mallet on chisel that he finds himself thinking about medieval counterparts who were cutting ‘basically the same joint 900 years ago.’ ”
Background. This famous cathedral has been a topic here at SimanaitisSays and more recently here.
Impressive Goals. “We want to restore this cathedral as it was built in the Middle Ages,” says Jean-Louis Georgelin, the retired French army general who is overseeing the reconstruction. “It is a way to be faithful to the (handiwork) of all the people who built all the extraordinary monuments in France.”
Schaeffer describes, “Facing a tight deadline to reopen the cathedral by December 2024, carpenters and architects are also using computer design and other modern technologies to speed the reconstruction. Computers were used in the drawing of detailed plans for carpenters, to help ensure that their hand-chiseled beams fit together perfectly.”
Schaeffer quotes artisan Henrickson: “ ‘Traditional carpenters had a lot of that in their head. It’s pretty amazing to think about how they did this with what they had, the tools and technology that they had at the time.’ ”
A 61-year-old American, Henrickson is from Grand Marais, Minnesota. Most of the other artisans working on the timber frame are French.
Methodology. “The roof reconstruction,” Schaeffer says, “hit an important milestone in May, when large parts of the new timber frame were assembled and erected at a workshop in the Loire Valley, in western France. The dry run assured architects that the frame is fit for purpose.”
Schaeffer observes, “The next time it is put together will be atop the cathedral. Unlike in medieval times, it will be trucked into Paris and lifted by mechanical crane into position.”
Architect Remi Fromont said that the rebuilt frame “is the same wooden frame structure of the 13th century. We have exactly the same material: oak. We have the same tools, with the same axes that were used, exactly the same tools. We have the same know-how. And soon, it will return to its same place.”
Our Lady would be pleased. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2023
Simanaitis Says 
As a military kid growing up in post war Europe, we lived in a Paris hotel for a year and traveled far and wide the subsequent years. Saw many cathedrals being rebuilt, and was in awe of the carpentry and masonry skills … careful, intricate and tedious despite involving massive elements. I was appalled to see our familiar childhood touchstone Notre Dame suffer its destruction.
I gained even more appreciation during a quarter century in the DC area, witnessing the final, measured completion of the National Cathedral which has become an iconic national treasure, and site of so many funerals of national heroes.
While I fully understand the slothful and avaricious tendencies for contractors to string out and over run projects, I’m still a bit leery of politically imposed deadlines on projects such as this.
To me, there’s a certain assurance to the timetable set by those like Gaudi … it will be done when it all is right!
OK, after mulling a bit, I’ll reply to my own reply.
In the ’80s, through the auspices of good sailplane woodworking friend, Elmer Zook who ran the family general store in Intercourse, PA, I was invited to a dawn to dusk barn raising. Not all that different from cathedral craftsmanship, based on similar age learned crafts, eschewing modern tools and techniques.
I learned that joints were NOT shaped to perfectly match, but had small variations in gaps and dowel fitments based on which side faced sun, precipitation and wind weathering.
They based the orientation of the barn on historical knowledge of weather direction and ground water in the specific soil. While built on a rock foundation, different types of granite were used on different sides based on soil/water table effects.
I doubt if this sort of feel and intuition can be distilled into an architectural text … more of an art than a skill or craft.
Fascinating! As if the physical skills needed were not challenging enough. Thanks for sharing. 😎
One thing I recall is they tasted the granite boulders to determine which had certain qualities.