When Maurice de Sully was elected bishop of Paris in 1160, he proposed the demolition of Saint-Étienne and the reconstruction of a new cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary, according to the official cathedral history.

No building makes it 856 years without some ups and downs. Among the low points for Notre Dame was the 17th century.

 According to National Geographic, the reign of Louis XIV brought dire changes to the cathedral. Original stained-glass windows were replaced with plain glass; a pillar in the main doorway was demolished to widen the opening so carriages could pass through.

The French Revolution was even more devastating. According to the cathedral’s official history, revolutionaries tore down 28 statues of kings housed in Notre Dame, driven by anti-monarchist fervor.

They also destroyed many other statues with the exception of one of the Virgin Mary, and tore down the original spire of the church, erected in the 13th century. Revolutionaries renamed Notre Dame the Temple to the Goddess Reason, according to the Fondation Napoleon, and later converted it into a wine warehouse.

After the revolution, an agreement called the Concordat of 1801 returned Notre Dame to the Catholic Church. Napoleon Bonaparte, the French general and eventual emperor, chose the damaged cathedral as the site of his 1804 coronation.

Bonaparte’s people draped fabrics over the Gothic architecture of Notre Dame to make it look like a Greek temple, according to Fondation Napoleon.

From then on, the building was used for imperial ceremonies, but remained in disarray until the Romantic movement of the 1800s, according to the Fondation Napoleon. Victor Hugo’s famous novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” published in 1831, reinvigorated interest in the crumbling building in the middle of Paris.

With city officials and public support behind him, architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc launched a major renovation project to save the cathedral in 1843. It was a 20-year project that created Notre Dame as it appeared before today’s fire: The old spire was replaced, sculpted gargoyles were added and new murals were painted.

According to the cathedral’s official website, the renovation also included the building of a new sacristy, where priests prepare for worship services, and the reconstruction of the cathedral’s organ.

Modern-day damage
Over the next 150 years, the cathedral would see more facelifts, including the restoration of stained glass in the nave and a decade-long effort to clean the building’s western facade. In recent years, the building has again shown its age.

Last year, the Friends of Notre-Dame of Paris Foundation launched a major fundraising effort in the United States in an effort to fund repairs to the cathedral.

According to CBS News, years of pollution and weathering had cracked the facade and the famous flying buttresses. The French government had pledged $50 million to renovations, but the Archdiocese of Paris had estimated that the total cost would reach $185 million.

Most likely, Kodur said, the masonry walls of the cathedral will stand, though they could crack and become weakened from the heat of the fire and the cold water used by firefighters to control the flames. The wooden roof is a loss, Kodur said, as are any drapes, decorations or flammable objects inside.

The much-needed renovations may be the cause of the fire that raged at the cathedral yesterday, according to French authorities. But some of the cathedral’s treasures may have been saved by those same renovations, too.

On April 11, cranes lifted more than a dozen religious statues off the top of the building to be sent to southwestern France for restoration work, according to the Associated Press. The statues made it down just four days before the fire burst into flame. (LiveScience)