Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, reopened last weekend, five years after a severe fire damaged the centuries-old landmark. Along with brand new restorations, old treasures were unearthed as part of the repair process.
A team from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) was able to dig under the church’s stone flooring and they found 1,035 fragments “from numerous works of art,” according to a report from National Geographic. Christophe Besnier of INRAP told the outlet that his team was impressed with the findings.
“The remains turned out to be much richer than expected,” he said. His team found a total 1,035 fragments of numerous works of art.
An exact cause for the fire that engulfed the roof of Notre Dame on April 15, 2019 is still unknown. It burned until the next morning, but firefighters were able to save the historic structure, including its bell towers and rose windows, according to the Friends of Notre-Dame De Paris organization.
“Nobody was injured, and the Catholic relics housed in the cathedral and priceless works of art were rescued and brought to safety,” said the group.
INRAP said its archeologists “immediately intervened” after the fire to excavate collapsed materials, in part using remote-controlled equipment. Before scaffolding was put up, they excavated the transept crossing of the Notre Dame. That’s where they discovered a medieval rood (a Saxon word for “cross”) screen destroyed during the reign of Louis XIV “in an exceptional state of preservation.”
“As soon as Besnier’s team removed the floor tiles and a thin layer of dirt and rubble, the top of a lead coffin appeared. Nearby, limestone sculptures began to emerge: life-sized heads and torsos neatly lined up right under the floor along the entrance to the choir,” said National Geographic.
These were part of the 13-foot-high screen with life-size sculptures that was created in around 1230 and stood for five centuries, according to INRAP. National Geographic said it once closed off Notre Dame’s choir and sanctuary from public view and described the work as a “masterpiece of Gothic architecture,” that depicted the passion of the Christ, including a lifeless Jesus Christ with blood dripping from a spear wound in his side.
“The rood screen at Notre Dame served two purposes, says architectural historian Mathieu Lours,” per National Geographic. “The first was to give priests a platform to read scripture to the public who assembled in the nave. Staircases led to pulpits atop the screen, from which priests could preach to the masses. The second was for privacy: The screen allowed the priests to seclude themselves in the choir during their eight daily prayer services, keeping them out of the public’s view.”
Around the time it disappeared, the Gothic style went out of fashion and the king of France wanted a more open choir in the cathedral. With the recent discovery, we now know it was buried after being dismantled in the 1700s.
Besnier got permission to dig deeper than the initial 16 inches his team was allowed to extract artifacts. Though it was intended to last five weeks, the dig went on for two months.
Around 700 of the rood screen fragments unearthed still had traces of paint. These traces will now provide researchers with more information about the paint that was believed to be on all sculptures in the church, including its façade. Besnier believes even more fragments of the screen are still buried under the church’s choir.
“It would be unforgivable to leave such splendors in the cathedral floor. The excavations must continue,” said French critic David Rykner. However, Besnier said the cathedral floor is not expected to be excavated anytime soon. In fact, if the roof hadn’t caught fire, he said his team would never even have found the fragments we know about today.
According to INARP, excavations also “made it possible to identify remains from the Middle Ages, prior to the construction of the cathedral, including a vast Carolingian building and one or more monumental buildings.”