Notre-Dame Cathedral’s gargoyles undergo makeover for grand reopening

As the world’s most famous cathedral prepares to open its doors once more on 8 December, the gargoyles are back, but this is far from their first makeover. 

The gargoyles are arguably the most famous part of Notre-Dame Cathedral, but it may be a surprise to learn that the gruesome faced statues most of us associate with Notre-Dame are not gargoyles, and that the majority of these statues were carved after the publication of Victor Hugo’s novel, “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”.

Notre-Dame began construction in 1163, but it was almost a century later that the cathedral was considered complete, in 1260. Before the 2019 fire it was one of the most-visited sites in Paris, attracting some 13 million visitors per year. But in the early 19th century, Notre-Dame was in much a sorrier state than it is today, some six weeks prior to its reopening. 

Gargoyles made their way into popular culture with Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”. Contrary to what many millennial disciples of the Walt Disney version will remember, the gargoyles in Hugo’s novel were minor characters, and while he writes that Quasimodo would regularly speak to the statues in his solitude, they don’t speak back.

Disney’s version popularised the animated ‘gargoyles’ of Victor, Hugo and Laverne and is responsible for what many now believe is a gargoyle. Victor, Hugo and Laverne are in fact chimaeras, purely decorative statues with grotesque faces. A gargoyle is functional, with a spout in its mouth to evacuate water from the drains. The original gargoyles are thought to have been around since at least 600 CE, if folklore is to be believed.

A history of violence

“One of  the most famous and earliest tales about a gargoyle is from Rouen, Normandy,” says Dr Andrew Marr, historian and founder of Visit Auvergne. “The story goes that during the 7th century, Rouen was under the dominion of a voracious, dragon-like creature called la gargouille. To keep him satisfied, the inhabitants would offer up people as sacrifices. This gruesome rite continued for some time until a brave Christian cleric named Romain confronted la gargouille and captured it. It was burnt on a pyre and its head strung up from the town’s wall to commemorate their triumph. Later, sculptors used this devilish taxidermy mount as an inspiration for their own gargoyle designs.”

The chimaeras we now associate with Notre-Dame (and the prototype for the Disney characters) date from the mid-19th century. Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame was published in 1831 and sparked renewed interest in Notre-Dame, which was falling into disrepair at the time. It galvanised an enormous renovations project which lasted 21 years, from 1843–64, making the current five year renovations look positively speedy.

Inspired by Hugo, sculptors Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus added 56 new chimaeras to Notre-Dame’s façade and replaced and repaired many of the original gargoyles.

This time around, roughly 1,000 artisans have been involved in Notre-Dame’s renovations, including a team of sculptors working on the gargoyles and chimaeras.

Outside Notre-Dame, the free photo exhibition ‘Les Visages du Chantier’ is due to remain until December 31st, showing some of the many people that have brought the cathedral back to life.

Making your own gruesome creation

The fascination with chimaeras and gargoyles that Hugo revived almost 200 years ago is only growing, particularly with the anticipation around Notre-Dame reopening. Sculptor Cécilia da Mota has never been busier.

In her studio in Belleville, east Paris, she teaches her students to carve their own Notre-Dame style chimaera, using the same limestone. It even comes from the same quarry used for Notre-Dame’s own chimaeras, La Carrière du Clocher in Bonneuil-en-Valois. In as little as two days participants can carve a lion’s head; a chimaera takes a little longer.

Testing out the workshop in Belleville, I look as though I’ve sneezed into a bag of flour, dust from the limestone is everywhere. The block of stone has to be chipped and sliced away at — there’s no sticking or adding.

Once we’ve sawed our blocks into the rough shape of our respective lions or gargoyles heads, the smaller indentations are made with a pick and hammer. For the finer details, there are varying sizes of metal files, and the clouds of dust keep coming and coming, and there are dusty handprints on our clothes and dust coating the fine hairs on our faces.

As some of us work on lion’s heads and others on chimaeras, there are plastic lions, photos of chimaeras and lions and plaster models to serve as inspiration. We’re all working from the same inspiration and under the same instruction, and chimaeras were meant to be grotesque and scary-looking to ward off evil spirits, but some of our results are much more Simba than Scar.

ADVERTISEMENT

Photos around the studio show da Mota working on chimaeras for historical monuments all around the country, and several sculptures of stone labia. Chimaera-carving isn’t always a full-time gig, and da Mota also makes sculptures for gynaecologists. 

The grotesqueness of the faces of both chimaeras and gargoyles are widely thought to have been a way to ward off evil spirits, and da Mota says that her workshops often feel like a form of art therapy.

“I have plenty of clients that are unhappy or unfulfilled in their jobs,” says da Mota. “Working the stone gives them a creative outlet.”

Perhaps this is the only one way in which chimaeras can be said to ward off demons, however, as Marr says it’s more likely that gargoyles and chimaeras represent the demons rather than a way to deter them.

ADVERTISEMENT

“In the Middle Ages Satan was seen as the prince of the powers of the air, so they may be representations of aerial demons,” he says. “Another theory is that they’re a form of iconography, and that they represent sinners or demons that God has turned to stone.This echoes the Biblical story of Lot’s wife, who was transformed into a pillar of salt when defiantly looking back on the doomed city of Sodom.”

Although Notre-Dame will be open to the public from December 8th, with the newly carved gargoyles and chimaeras in place, parts of the cathedral, including the towers and treasury, won’t open until 2026. Reservations for the newly-opened Notre-Dame are due to open in late November, and will be booked via an app organised by the city tourism board. Tickets have, and always will be, free, so be wary of scam sites.