With precision and boundless vitality, a crew of carpenters used medieval strategies to lift up — by hand — a three-ton oak truss Saturday in entrance of Notre Dame Cathedral, a duplicate of the wood buildings that have been consumed within the landmark’s devastating April 2019 hearth that additionally toppled its spire.
The demonstration to mark European Heritage Days gave the a whole bunch of individuals a first-hand take a look at the country strategies used 800 years in the past to construct the triangular frames within the nave of Notre Dame de Paris.
It additionally confirmed that the choice to duplicate the cathedral in its authentic kind was the precise one, mentioned Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, who heads the cathedral’s reconstruction.
“It reveals firstly that we made the precise alternative in selecting to rebuild the carpentry identically, in oak from France,” Georgelin mentioned in an interview. “Secondly, it reveals us the … methodology by which we are going to rebuild the framework, truss after truss.”
A debate over whether or not the brand new spire ought to have a futuristic design or whether or not the trusses must be manufactured from fireproof cement like within the Cathedral of Nantes, which was destroyed in a 1972 hearth, ended with the choice in July to respect Notre Dame’s authentic design and supplies.
A complete of 25 trusses are to be put in at an unknown date within the cathedral nave. Philippe Gourmain, a forestry knowledgeable engaged on the cathedral undertaking, mentioned the carpentry part won’t come earlier than 2022.
“The issue of Notre Dame shouldn’t be a carpentry downside. We now have the wooden. We all know how one can do it,” Gourmain mentioned. “The massive situation is concerning the stone.”
Some stones — which help the carpentry — have been broken by the hearth and “it’s not really easy now” to search out related stone, he mentioned.
French President Emmanuel Macron desires the cathedral reopened in 2024 in time for the Paris Olympic Video games, a deadline that many specialists have referred to as unrealistic.
For the second, the fragile job of dismantling melted scaffolding, which was initially erected to refurbish the now-toppled spire, continues. That job, began in early June, will likely be accomplished in October.
The hovering cathedral vaults are additionally being cleared of particles by 35 specialists on ropes. The organ with its 8,000 pipes was eliminated for restore in early August.
It isn’t but recognized what approach will likely be used to create and set up the wood trusses.
The truss mounted for the weekend show is a duplicate of truss No. 7, extra superior that the primary six trusses, which have been “extra primitive,” mentioned Florian Carpentier, web site supervisor for the crew from Carpenters With out Borders crew that felled the timber and used axes to chop the logs for the wood body. With rope cables and a country pulley system, the carpenters slowly pulled the truss they in-built July from the bottom the place it was laid out.
“It’s a second to see, ancestral strategies that final. There’s the current and the previous and it hyperlinks us to our roots,” mentioned Romain Greif, an architect who got here together with his household to look at the show. “It’s an occasion.”
In a ultimate contact, as soon as the No. 7 truss reproduction was raised on excessive, a carpenter shinnied up the wood beams — to cheers — to tie an oak department to the highest of the triangular construction, a logo of prosperity and a salute to the employees, a practice nonetheless honoured in quite a few European international locations.
© 2020 The Canadian Press
