Chinese conservationists join project to restore Notre Dame after devastating fire
- Country’s specialists have extensive experience of restoring wooden structures
- Paris cathedral’s wooden beams suffered extensive damage in April’s blaze
A team of Chinese heritage specialists will help with the restoration of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, bringing their knowledge and experience of restoring timber frames to bear on the project.
The agreement makes China the first country to formally partner with France in the restoration and builds on a long-standing working relationship between the two countries in the field.
“France has a long history of heritage conservation, while this has been a very fast-growing area in China with many international experts joining in, so collaboration between the two countries in this field increased greatly,” said Li Xin, deputy director of Unesco’s World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region.
“In the past, there was much to learn from the French, but now a more equal dialogue is emerging.”
Li noted that this was partly due to the vast number of cultural heritage sites within China that were being restored, along with the high level of international engagement in these projects, which had raised the level of local expertise.
In particular, China’s experience restoring its own collection of historic temples, palaces, and buildings – most of which are made from timber – might benefit the restoration of the Gothic cathedral, whose wooden ceilings and spire suffered the brunt of the damage after the blaze broke out last April, experts said.