By Christoph Driessen, dpa l Thursday, April 6, 2023
PARIS – Roughly four years after the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, four of the badly damaged stained glass windows are being transported back to the French capital after being restored at Cologne Cathedral in neighbouring Germany.
They are set to arrive in Paris after Easter, a spokesman for the works said on Thursday. The restoration of the windows is seen as a symbol of German-French cooperation and lasted about a year.
The windows were created in 1965 by the stained glass artist Jacques Le Chevallier. The blue and red shades are based on the use of those colours in medieval windows.
The fire at Notre-Dame in 2019 completely destroyed the cathedral’s roof and the so-called crossing tower collapsed. French President Emmanuel Macron afterwards promised to restore the cathedral within five years.
The former prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet launched a fundraising campaign with the German UNESCO Commission where the money raised was meant to be used for a specific project, leading to the cooperation.
Former Cologne Cathedral building master and coordinator for German aid in the reconstruction of Notre Dame, Barbara Schock-Werner, told dpa that the official handover date for the windows would be at the end of July in Paris.
During the restoration, two major challenges had to be faced, said Schock-Werner. One was that the windows were contaminated with lead, since the cathedral’s roof was constructed with lead, and this needed to be removed.
To do so, Schock-Werner had to work in a negative pressure chamber wearing a protective suit and mask.
“That was exhausting, of course,” she said.
The second difficulty was removing soot and dirt without harming the depiction.
This had to be done very carefully “so that you really only get the dirt and soot and do not interfere with the painting,” she said. the process was successful aside from some parts being damaged so badly that new pieces with the same colour had to be installed.
“It was done very professionally, and also coordinated with Paris every step of the way,” Schock-Werner said.
