Coronations, protests and tightrope artists: Iconic images from Notre Dame’s history ahead of reopening

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with details of the cathedral’s reopening.
For hundreds of years, Notre Dame was the backdrop to some of French history’s defining moments. On Friday, the cathedral itself will play the lead role as France’s President Emmanuel Macron visits the building ahead of its official reopening the following weekend.
It will be the first glimpse inside the gothic church returned to its former glory, after a devastating fire five years ago and a $700 million euro ($738 million) restoration project.
It also marks a new chapter in Notre Dame’s 860-year-old story. From James V’s marriage and Napoleon’s coronation, to World War II celebrations and memorials for terror attack victims – Notre Dame has watched silently over them all.
The cathedral’s role in such moments speaks to its place in the country’s national imagination. It also means that, over the centuries, its striking gothic form has been widely depicted in paintings, etchings and, more recently, photographs.
Some of the grandest depictions of Notre Dame date from the 18th and 19th centuries, as artists recounted great moments from history in rich detail.
Jacques-Louis David’s depiction of Napoleon Bonaparte’s coronation as emperor in 1804. – Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
One of the best-known is Jacques-Louis David’s painting of Napoleon Bonaparte’s coronation as emperor, an event the artist personally attended in 1804. As well as depicting a cast of important characters, including members of the Bonaparte family, the artwork reveals the interior styling of the cathedral at the time.
Progress to the mid-1800s, and the genesis of paper photography, and images show Notre Dame – then the tallest building in view – towering over the French capital. These early photos also show the cathedral, as it is today, without a spire (the one that collapsed during the 2019 fire was only erected during a sweeping 19th-century restoration).
The spread of cameras and the emergence of picture agencies mean that many of the cathedral’s most significant moments since have been documented: General Charles de Gaulle marching to Notre Dame after the liberation of Paris in 1944, a tightrope walker balancing between the two bell towers in 1971 and the visits of foreign dignitaries, from Dwight Eisenhower to Pope Benedict XVI.
And in the age of digital photography, depictions of the more than 860-year-old structure have, unsurprisingly, exploded in number. To date, more than 3.2 million Instagram images have been posted with the hashtag #notredame.
Of course, the lasting image from our present era will be that of the wooden roof and spire engulfed in flames. But these photographs will, eventually, form just another chapter in the cathedral’s evolving visual history.
In honor of the cathedral’s grand reopening on December 7 and 8, see images below of Notre Dame through the years.
The 1431 coronation of Henry VI, depicted in the 18th century by an unknown artist. Henry, an English king, also claimed to be King of France after being crowned at Notre Dame, though his legitimacy was disputed at the time by supporters of France’s own Charles VII. – Print Collector/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
An interior view of Notre Dame, as seen by the French painter Jean-François Depelchin in 1789. – Leemage/Corbis/Getty Images
Engraving from the late 1840s shows Notre Dame and the Seine River. – Stock Montage/Getty Images
An illustration from 1894 shows the pipes of the cathedral’s organ being cleaned. – De Agostini Editorial/Getty Images
An 1855 image shows the cathedral, as it was then, without a spire — the one that collapsed during the 2019 fire was only erected during a sweeping 19th-century restoration. – LL/Roger Viollet/Getty Images
A 1864 image by Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg shows foundations being laid on a construction site near the Notre Dame Cathedral. – Roger Viollet/Getty Images
An 1890 photograph showing the Saint-Michel bridge, which links the Seine’s left bank to the Île de la Cité, where Notre Dame was built. – ND/Roger Viollet/Getty Images
Workers carry out repair work on the cathedral in 1931. – Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
Notre Dame has served as a venue for not only marriages and coronations, but for memorials and somber state events. This 1936 image shows the coffins of sailors killed when the ship Pourquoi-Pas sunk near Iceland. – Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
Americans soldiers celebrate the liberation of Paris in the square beside the Notre Dame Cathedral in 1944. – Pierre Jahan/Roger Viollet/Getty Images
Charles de Gaulle and French war General Philippe Leclerc prepare to march down the Champs Elysees to Notre Dame Cathedral after the liberation of Paris in August 1944. – Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
Eva Perón, film actor and wife of Argentine President Juan Perón, attends mass at Notre Dame Cethedral in July 1947. – Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
Couples kiss and chat by the Seine River close to Notre Dame Cathedral in the 1950s. – Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images
Then US president Dwight David Eisenhower examines a religious artifact during a visit to Notre Dame in May 1960. – Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match/Getty Images
A statue on the facade of Notre Dame is cleaned by a specialist in 1963. – Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
In 1969, a helicopter was needed to help remove a Vietcong flag attached to the cathedral’s facade by an unknown protester. – Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
Philippe Petit, a French high-wire artist, performs an authorized tightrope walk between Notre Dame’s bell towers in 1971. – Cardenas/AP
Unionists and steelworkers hang banners from Notre Dame during protests against job cuts and factory closures in the steel industry. – Michel Clement/AFP/Getty Images
Pope John Paul II attends a beatification mass at Notre Dame in 1997. The pontiff celebrated the beatification for Frederic Ozanam, a 19th-century French layman who founded the St-Vincent-de-Paul charity. – Domenico Stinellis/AP
Notre Dame’s organ and one of its famed rose windows pictured in 2004. – Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images
Pope Benedict XVI meets worshipers following an evening prayer service at Notre Dame Cathedral on September 12, 2008. – Philippe Wojazer/AFP/Getty Images
Worshipers pictured after a Notre Dame prayer vigil organized to honor the visiting Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. – Julien Hekimian/Getty Images
An aerial picture from 2012 shows the Notre Dame Cathedral on the Île de la Cité, an island in the Seine River. – Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images
People attend a ceremony to inaugurate nine new church bells at Notre Dame in February 2013. – Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images
A 2015 photograph shows the Notre Dame Cathedral at sunset. La Défense business district is pictured in the background. – Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
A woman looks at one of Notre Dame’s windows from a platform in 2017. The cathedral was in need of major restorations at the time of fire on April 15, 2019. – Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images
Workers measure a wall as they begin restoration work on a damaged section of the cathedral in 2018. – Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
The transept of Notre Dame Cathedral pictured in 2018. – Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
Conservationists remove the head of a statue, depicting the apostle Saint Andre, that was built by architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The picture was taken in March 2019, less than a month before the devastating fire. – Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
Smoke billows as fire engulfs the cathedral’s roof and spire on April 15, 2019. – Benoit Tessier/Reuters
This photograph, taken from atop the cathedral, shows the structure of the building during reconstruction work in December 2023. – Christophe Ena/AFP/Getty Images
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