Authentic reconstruction of the Notre Dame de Paris?

Abstract

This paper reviews the decision to rebuild the Notre Dame de Paris to its last known visual state by, firstly, gaining knowledge in the general definition and the importance of heritage and secondly, obtaining insides in the notion and complexities of authenticity. In addition this paper reviews the reconstruction process of the Frauenkirche in Dresden, Germany. Heritage propagates our history and cultural identity and must therefore be viewed critically to prevent deceit. One way to examine the sincerity of heritage can be done by basing it on authenticity. Yet, the latter is a subjective concept and no universal criteria can be formulated, since it comes down the perception of people. Due to this effect, post-war reconstruction in historical style is likely to be seen as authentic because it responds to a collective desire of the people, although it can be seen as deceitful in regard to the historical continuum of the reconstructed object. Examples of reconstructed heritage around Europe show that due to the strong relation between heritage and cultural identity, socio-political factors underlie inevitably the way we deal with heritage, whether it is to enhance, cultivate or destroy cultural identity. The Frauenkirche demonstrated how authenticity is obtained in reconstruction to the original style by applying the Anastylosis principles. However, it also illustrated the complexities of the debate prior to the reconstruction, since multiple symbolisms were assigned to the church and how finally, one of these was neglected when rebuilding this emblematic drawing. Thanks to this framework, it is possible to conclude that reconstructing the Notre Dame to its last known visual state is not likely to be seen as authentic when it deliberately results in creating replicas without an obvious notion of the destruction that the fire caused. The most critical aspect in authentic reconstruction of the Notre Dame is to let the principles of reconstruction meet the people’s desire assuming that heritage owns its status by being meaningful to people. Therefore, these meanings and symbolism that people assign to the Notre Dame need to be identified before being translated in design principles.