Coronations, protests and tightrope artists: Iconic images from Notre Dame’s history ahead of reopening

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with details of the cathedral’s reopening.

For hundreds of years, Notre Dame was the backdrop to some of French history’s defining moments. On Friday, the cathedral itself will play the lead role as France’s President Emmanuel Macron visits the building ahead of its official reopening the following weekend.

It will be the first glimpse inside the gothic church returned to its former glory, after a devastating fire five years ago and a $700 million euro ($738 million) restoration project.

It also marks a new chapter in Notre Dame’s 860-year-old story. From James V’s marriage and Napoleon’s coronation, to World War II celebrations and memorials for terror attack victims – Notre Dame has watched silently over them all.

The cathedral’s role in such moments speaks to its place in the country’s national imagination. It also means that, over the centuries, its striking gothic form has been widely depicted in paintings, etchings and, more recently, photographs.

Some of the grandest depictions of Notre Dame date from the 18th and 19th centuries, as artists recounted great moments from history in rich detail.

One of the best-known is Jacques-Louis David’s painting of Napoleon Bonaparte’s coronation as emperor, an event the artist personally attended in 1804. As well as depicting a cast of important characters, including members of the Bonaparte family, the artwork reveals the interior styling of the cathedral at the time.

Progress to the mid-1800s, and the genesis of paper photography, and images show Notre Dame – then the tallest building in view – towering over the French capital. These early photos also show the cathedral, as it is today, without a spire (the one that collapsed during the 2019 fire was only erected during a sweeping 19th-century restoration).

The spread of cameras and the emergence of picture agencies mean that many of the cathedral’s most significant moments since have been documented: General Charles de Gaulle marching to Notre Dame after the liberation of Paris in 1944, a tightrope walker balancing between the two bell towers in 1971 and the visits of foreign dignitaries, from Dwight Eisenhower to Pope Benedict XVI.

And in the age of digital photography, depictions of the more than 860-year-old structure have, unsurprisingly, exploded in number. To date, more than 3.2 million Instagram images have been posted with the hashtag #notredame.

Of course, the lasting image from our present era will be that of the wooden roof and spire engulfed in flames. But these photographs will, eventually, form just another chapter in the cathedral’s evolving visual history.

In honor of the cathedral’s grand reopening on December 7 and 8, see images below of Notre Dame through the years.