“L“The workshop has reopened its doors after more than a year spent serving the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris.” This message, which appears as a banner on the website of La Charpenterie d'autreviens, based in Roquebrune-sur-Argens, does not fail to resonate. Especially since the craftsman Matteo Pellegrino is not a real companion.
“In carpenters’ jargon, I am a fox”he specifies. Whatever. As incredible as it seems, Matteo Pellegrino did indeed participate in the reconstruction project of the famous religious building partly ravaged by flames in April 2019.
With a last name that means “pilgrim”, perhaps the most mystical will see it as a sign of destiny? Divine intervention? At this mention, the person concerned smiles, but prefers to attribute his incredible adventure to his rather unique know-how rather than to his surname.
“I was contacted because I mastered squaring with an axe”he simply testifies. Matteo has no equal when it comes to transforming a tree trunk – “a log” – in square section beam. Not at the sawmill, but with a hammer, followed by a hammer for finishing, and a lot of elbow grease!
Attention to detail
“The project was to rebuild the framework of the cathedral identically, and therefore to shape the beams in the old style. For attention to detail, so that the carpenters' tools were as close as possible to those used in the 12th and 13th centuries. , we even asked tailors to forge around sixty axes and hatchets.says Matteo, amused.
But make no mistake, he warns: “It goes beyond the simple aesthetic aspect. Because they respect the grain of the wood, the natural shape of the tree, the beams obtained by squaring with an ax are more stable and less likely to deform. The proof : before burning, the frame of Notre-Dame had lasted more than 800 years”. Well beyond the ten-year insurance required today from construction professionals…
Perhaps out of modesty, Matteo Pellegrino has some difficulty expressing his enthusiasm for having participated in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame. The young Montaurousian is, however, well aware that “it was not a construction site like any other. Whether you are a believer or not, the Paris Cathedral is a special building”.
And if he enjoyed meeting stonemasons and other gargoyle sculptors on a daily basis, if he marveled at the sunrises and sunsets over the roofs of Paris – “a little less working days in the rain” –, Matteo especially loved the work of selecting trees in the forest.
“I am passionate about forests. Going to the most beautiful forests in France to choose the oaks which were going to be used to rebuild the framework of the choir and the nave of the cathedral was truly a wonderful experience.”
Great encounters
Human as well as professional. On this subject, the Var carpenter recounts the anecdote with envy: “With the teams from Ateliers Perrault and Desmonts, two companies specializing in medieval frames and which were selected for the reconstruction of Notre-Dame, we went – for fun – to a forest near Angers to cut and square three trees with an axe, while a pig cooked on a spit for lunch.”
Also among the great encounters favored by this extraordinary project, that with Valentin Pontarollo. “The condition for me to accept the proposal from Ateliers Perrault was to be able to complete my projects in the South. They sent me Valentin, a journeyman carpenter, whom I then found working on the reconstruction of the cathedral.”
Love of work above all
After a little over a year spent rebuilding the “forest”, a nickname given to the framework of Notre-Dame which required 20km of beams, Matteo Pellegrino is of course feeling “satisfaction, pride in a job well done”.
But he assures us: “What I love above all is my job. My life did not end with the end of the reconstruction of Paris Cathedral. I am happy to have moved on to other projects.”
In addition to his own house which he is renovating in the town of Montauroux, Matteo restores currently the framework of the castle of Queen Jeanne in Guillaumes, in the Nice hinterland, from trees cut in the forest of the commune. “En circuit court!”
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