Mighty churches meet in rendezvous of the ages
Visitors to Westminster Abbey in London can enjoy a taste of two cities after a piece of Paris arrived there in the form of Notre Dame de Paris, The Augmented Exhibition, which runs until June 1.
The attraction, the latest stop on a tour taking the story of the Paris landmark worldwide, is being staged in the chapter house of the abbey, which was the focus of global attention for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III.
Notre Dame cathedral is due to reopen in December, when restoration work following a fire that engulfed the 861-year-old emblem of the French capital in 2019 is set to be completed.
The damage to such a global cultural jewel produced a huge outpouring of support, and while repairs have continued, an exhibition telling its tale has carried the heart of Paris to other cities.
“The night of the fire we felt how the entire world was in pain with the French people, which was surprising,” said Philippe Jost, president of Rebuilding Notre Dame de Paris, the institution responsible for conserving it and restoring it.
“We knew the cathedral was known all over the world; we didn’t imagine she was so loved.”
Edouard Lussan, co-founder of Histovery, the company whose technology allows visitors to travel through the history of Notre Dame, said the visit is made possible thanks to a tablet called HistoPad that works in 12 languages, including Chinese, and enables people to be transported to different points in the cathedral’s life, in a 360-degree total experience.
“It’s a time-traveling machine,” he said. “You scan the piece of furniture to travel back to a previous time and get a surround view of what it would have been like to stand on that spot centuries ago. It uses technology to explain complex construction techniques to a mass market, simply, for all ages.
“L’Oreal (the cosmetics company) put a lot of money into the reconstruction and wanted a way to explain what was going on, so we have taken this experience to the United States twice, Shanghai, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and we’ll probably go to Beijing this year, too.”
Close relationship
David Hoyle, dean of Westminster Abbey, said there was a close relationship between “two great churches in two great cities”, and that he was delighted to host the exhibit.
“We’ve always been fascinated by one another — bits of our building look like theirs, and for years we’ve watched and learned from one another.”
During the pandemic the abbey’s visitor numbers fell from more than 1 million a year to just 50,000, but with the funeral of the queen having showcased it to a global audience of up to 4 billion people, Hoyle said he was looking forward to seeing visitors return in larger numbers, to enjoy both Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame.