Notre-Dame de Paris

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The cathedral on the Ile de la Cite, begun in 1163 and built over roughly a century. It is central to this Journey for two reasons. First, its nave is one of the earliest buildings on which flying buttresses were used at scale, and whether the original 12th-century nave had them or whether they were added in a later campaign has been argued for over a century - the fabric has been altered enough that the question is genuinely hard. Second, the fire of 15 April 2019 destroyed the 19th-century timber spire and most of the medieval oak roof frame and left the vaults locally breached, and the reconstruction that followed became an unplanned public experiment in medieval craft: the roof frame was rebuilt in oak using hand-hewn timber and traditional joints rather than in steel or laminated timber. The cathedral reopened for worship on 8 December 2024 with associated works continuing. Restoration also produced new archaeology, including 13th-century iron staples found within the masonry.