In the Basement of Notre-Dame

The cathedral itself is a composite monument, whose various structural and decorative elements date from the 12th to the 21st century. But its basement holds many other surprises, notably revealed by the work of archaeologists working on the renovation of Notre-Dame following the fire of April 15, 2019. The spire culminating in the crossing of the transept had collapsed, pulling down part of the vault, destroying the marble floor at altar level. After clearing away the charred beams and broken stones, the ballet of shovels and brushes could begin.

It was common knowledge that archbishops and leading members of the clergy had always been buried beneath the choir and its immediate surroundings. It was also known that great historical figures, such as Isabelle of Hainaut, the wife of King Philip Augustus, had been buried there since 1190. But anonymous coffins can hold many surprises, and alongside the human remains, fragments of sculpture, whose existence was completely unsuspected, were bound to appear.

« Aaron » – Jubé : fragment de personnage avec sceptre et collier Fouilles de la croisée du transept de Notre-Dame de Paris © Denis Gliksman, Inrap
Paris, musée de Cluny – musée national du Moyen Age. Exposition « Faire parler les pierres », 19/11/2024-16/03/2025

Among the pipes

First, the archaeologists identified the underground heating pipes dating from Viollet-le-Duc’s renovation in the 19th century. Amid this tangle, two lead coffins appeared. One of them bore a name: that of Canon de la Porte, who died in 1710.

Another remains more mysterious. Anonymous, without inscriptions… Only the skeleton can reveal the identity of the deceased. Initial findings indicate lesions characteristic of cervical bone tuberculosis (chronic meningitis) suffered by a distinguished horseman. Dating places the individual, who died in his thirties, as having lived in the 16th century. From then on, speculation is rife. Too young to be a high-ranking clergyman; probably a layman, therefore not supposed to be buried so close to the choir… Who could this individual be?

« Christ out of the basement » – Jubé : tête en cours de dégagement Fouilles de la croisée du transept de Notre-Dame de Paris © Denis Gliksman, Inrap
Paris, musée de Cluny – musée national du Moyen Age. Exposition « Faire parler les pierres », 19/11/2024-16/03/2025

It was then that, like a puzzle, the pieces of the enigma began to take shape. A poet whose uncle was a cardinal is said to have lived in the Notre-Dame cloister (a plaque on one of the houses in the neighborhood confirms this). He died at the age of 35, was a good rider and suffered from chronic headaches (his writings attest to this). His name: Joachim du Bellay. Eureka! some exclaim (perhaps a little too quickly). Impossible, retort others. Du Bellay, in fact, sang at length in his poems about his attachment to his native region, Anjou. However, the skeleton corresponds to a person who lived… in the Ile-de-France region (as proven by isotopic analysis of the teeth). In a final twist, the convinced argue that du Bellay could very well have been raised by his uncle in Paris, therefore in the Ile-de-France region, and have kept the isotopes. For now, the mystery remains to be solved. If anyone is interested …

Christ Rising from the Earth

April 15, 2019: the spire bursts into flames and crashes onto the roof, causing the transept keystone to break and the vault to explode. Beneath, a massacre ensues.

February 2022: after the stage of clearing and preserving the building, a team of archaeologists can finally begin work. Their time is running out: the construction site remains suspended pending the progress of their work. And it’s an understatement to say that they will go from surprise to surprise.

In addition to the discovery of the aforementioned coffins, they will unearth three thousand stone fragments, including a thousand sculpted ones, 700 bearing traces of polychromy. All that remains is to piece together the puzzle…

The location of the discovery is essential: at the level of the choir, right on the site of the rood screen erected in the 13th century and destroyed at the beginning of the 18th century, the cathedral choir undergoing extensive alterations. It quickly becomes clear that the sculptures correspond to the Passion of Christ, following the scenes in the enclosure of the choir on the north side. Hands holding accessories that allow us to recognize Aaron here, Moses there, a bust of Christ on the cross, a dying head (probably that of Jesus) emerge from the ground, buried there preciously after the ritual destruction.

The polychromy makes these fragments even more moving, where the blue of the eyes, the red of the lips, and the pink of the tunics seem as if they date from yesterday. A rodent lost among the vine leaves, Christ’s left hand nailed to the cross, and the lantern depicting the Arrest of Christ take us back to the time of medieval visitors, fascinated by the beauty and artistic quality, but above all moved by the proximity and humanity of the iconography displayed.

We feel “at home” at Notre Dame: we pray there, we meet there, we discuss there, we take refuge there…

Recent archaeological discoveries bring us closer to these distant ancestors whose faith has literally spanned the centuries.