Behind the Altar of Notre-Dame, 2024
Five years after the blaze at Notre-Dame de Paris, which ravaged the building, its roof and Viollet-Le-Duc’s spire, and miraculously spared the stained glass windows and many of the architectural treasures of this world-famous 14th-century cathedral, the consecration of a new altar will mark the reopening of the building on 08 December 2024.
While the renovation work has been under way for the past five years under the camera’s eye, impatient to see the building reopen to tourists from all over the world, the Diocese of Paris has also launched a call for projects for the design and manufacture of new liturgical furnishings (the altar, as well as the cathedra, sacrament house, the ambo and the baptistery) essential to the religious character of the site.
After studying the proposals, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich and the members of the Archdiocese of Paris chose the project designed by French artist Guillaume Bardet.
For more than a year, Pierre-Olivier Deschamps has been following Guillaume Bardet’s work, from the production of the bronze models for the application, to the production of the 1:1 scale «waxes» used to create the moulds in which the final pieces are cast, and then the assembly work in the foundry.