Rebuilding Notre Dame's roof transports workers back to Middle Ages

If time travel was possible, medieval carpenters would surely be amazed to see how woodworking techniques they pioneered in building Notre Dame Cathedral more than 800 years ago are being used again today to rebuild the world-famous monument's fire-ravaged roof.

Certainly the reverse is true for the modern-day carpenters using medieval-era skills. Working with hand axes to fashion hundreds of tons of oak beams for the framework of Notre Dame's new roof has, for them, been like rewinding time. It's given them a new appreciation of their predecessors' handiwork that pushed the architectural envelope back in the 13th century.

"It's a little mind-bending sometimes," says Peter Henrikson, one of the carpenters. He says there are times when he's whacking mallet on chisel that he finds himself thinking about medieval counterparts who were cutting "basically the same joint 900 years ago."

"It's fascinating," he says. "We probably are in some ways thinking the same things."

The use of hand tools to rebuild the roof that flames turned into ashes in 2019 is a deliberate, considered choice, especially since power tools would undoubtedly have done the work more quickly. The aim is to pay tribute to the astounding craftsmanship of the cathedral's original builders and to ensure that the centuries-old art of hand-fashioning wood lives on.

"We want to restore this cathedral as it was built in the Middle Ages," says Jean-Louis Georgelin, the retired French Army general who is overseeing the reconstruction.

"It is a way to be faithful to the [handiwork] of all the people who built all the extraordinary monuments in France."

Facing a tight deadline to reopen the cathedral by December 2024, carpenters and architects are also using...