If such an ambitious project was able to be completed on time, it is also thanks to them. For five years, nearly 2,000 artisans were mobilized to restore Notre-Dame. Ironworkers and metalworkers from small villages in Gard took part in the adventure. A discreet job that they had to keep secret.
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Around forty barlotières, that is to say frames for stained glass windows, were designed, modeled and designed in a workshop in Combas in the Gard. “These are the rose windows that are in the north and south towers, which are not to scale on the plansexplains Clément Molinelli, general director at Molinelli Métallerie d’art, pointing out his plans. In reality, they are 1.70m tall.”
Gard art metalwork was chosen for its know-how. For a year and a half, the artisans teamed up with a stained glass artist and, together, they designed glass windows intended for the restoration of Notre-Dame-de-Paris. “Symbolically, it’s still extraordinary to have participated in Notre-Dame because I think it will remain the project of the centuryrejoices Clément Molinelli. And to have contributed on our scale remains a source of pride.”
And in the Gard, they are not the only ones to have contributed to the project. The grids of the liturgical tray were custom-designed in an artistic ironworks in Bouillargues. Just like handrails for the tower stairs, and ventilation grilles. “When we enter the cathedral we walk on brass grilles, and all these frames were made, adjusted and assembled by us”says Cyril Théophile, ironworker, and manager of the company Faut le fer.
Contacted in 2022, the ironworker and his partner began making the pieces in 2023. From February 2024 to last November, they made numerous trips back and forth to Paris to work on the cathedral site. Difficult in fact all these “travel, far from our families and friends.” Then, we had to find our way and move around Paris but also in this immense cathedral under construction: “We did 40 kilometers a day, going up and down.”
We are starting to realize that we have contributed to something great! As long as we're in the bath, we don't realize it.
Cyril Théophile, ironworker
So they worked hard for eight months to get the parts ready on time. But they were kept secret until the cathedral reopened. An almost impossible mission: “It was a bit complicated for usadmits Cyril Théophile. On is part of a small village, Bouillargues. So when we say that there is a little Bouillargais just outside Nîmes who participated… We say to ourselves 'it's not possible, he's going to Notre-Dame'. So it’s hard not to talk about it.”
Mobilized at the cathedral for eight months, Cyril Théophile, ironworker and manager of the company Faut le fer, can now speak freely about the work he carried out in Paris.
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© FTV
And during the inauguration, even if their work is not the most visible, the two Gardois say they felt proud to have participated in this collective adventure: “We can't see what we've done because there are a lot of things hidden by the stones and everythinganalyzes Daniel Roig, metalworker. But once it's all over, it stings your eyes, you say 'oh yeah, we've been there, we've done that!'
In total, half a dozen companies from Occitanie contributed to rebuilding Notre-Dame. Shadow workers, without whom this project would never have been possible.
Written with Auriane Duffaud and Éric Mangani.
