Viollet-le-Duc’s Le

Viollet-le-Duc’s Le Stryge", nicknamed The Vampire by Parisians, appears to be observing the city of Paris below © Wazim Photos Notre-Dame ~ reborn… Viollet-le-Duc, an architect for all ages The great gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame with its famous gargoyles and incredible stained glass rose windows, towers and delicate spire is a symbol of Paris’s enduring identity - it’s also a cultural monument that’s treasured globally. The world watched in awe as the great Gothic Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris reopened in December 2024 after five years of renovation following a fire which almost destroyed the “heart and soul” of Paris. But it Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, via Wikimedia Commons wasn’t the first time the Cathedral underwent a rebirth. Sue Aran and Janine Marsh look at the life of Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, the architect who restored Notre-Dame in the 19th century and the cathedral’s latest rebirth. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was a designer, architectural historian, theorist and painter, famous for his enthusiastically creative restorations of not only iconic Parisian monuments, but monuments all over France and even in bordering countries. Before him, there were no gargoyles pondering the depth and breadth of the Seine from the roof of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, nor was Carcassonne, the fortified medieval hilltop Cité in the Languedoc region of southern France, so breathtakingly majestic. If not for his incomparable vision, what we consider to be some of the most interesting and beautiful Drawing of the spire of Notre-Dame by Viollet-le-Duc, via Wikimedia Commons places worth seeing, would have been lost to neglect, vandalism and time. Born in Paris in January 1814, Viollet-le- Duc’s early years were influenced by his home life. His parents were well-connected art connoisseurs. His father was curator of King Louis-Philippe’s royal residences while his mother, Eugènie, hosted a famous Friday night salon attended by the likes of Stendhal and literary critic Sainte-Beuve. His uncle, the painter and scholar Etienne Delécluze, was entrusted with his early education. By the time Viollet-le-Duc was in his teens, he was rebellious, philosophically liberal, and artistically inclined. His formative years were influenced by people who wrote and talked about art and architecture, and who built or preserved important buildings in Paris. From an early age Viollet-le-Duc exhibited a talent for drawing, and at 16 he graduated from the Collège de Bourbon and became an architect. Favoring practical experience, he traveled extensively in Italy where he was able to see first-hand the Roman remains and Renaissance churches and palaces in Rome, Florence and Venice. And in France 8 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 9