A wedding at Notre Dame
Here’s a feel-good story:
A carpenter who helped restore Notre-Dame after the devastating 2019 fire was granted permission to marry inside the cathedral, becoming part of its first wedding ceremony in 30 years.
A remarkable exception was made when 29-year-old master carpenter Martin Lorentz was allowed… pic.twitter.com/xXccGqqbHI
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) August 6, 2026
A carpenter who helped restore Notre-Dame after the devastating 2019 fire was granted permission to marry inside the cathedral, becoming part of its first wedding ceremony in 30 years.
A remarkable exception was made when 29-year-old master carpenter Martin Lorentz was allowed to marry his fiancée, Jade, inside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Lorentz had spent three years hand-carving the massive oak beams used to rebuild “the Forest”—the cathedral’s intricate medieval roof structure, which was destroyed in the devastating 2019 fire. Because Notre-Dame is classified as a national monument rather than a parish church, private weddings have been prohibited for decades, making theirs the first ceremony held there since 1995.
In recognition of Lorentz’s dedication to the cathedral’s restoration, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich personally granted the rare permission. Around 500 guests attended the ceremony, including family, friends, and many of the craftsmen who helped bring Notre-Dame back to life. As the newlyweds left the cathedral, Lorentz’s fellow carpenters formed a traditional guard of honor, raising their axes overhead in a moving tribute to the man who helped rebuild one of France’s most treasured landmarks.
Hand-carving oak beams for three years.
I love this.
What a great story.
A lady and gentleman in matrimony is the model of fitness and an apropos representation of architectural renewal. Congratulations!
Is Notre Dame repaired, and back in business?
Or is there still work to be done?
Hand-carving oak beams for three years gives a glimpse of the dedication and effort of the medieval craftsmen to build Notre Dame.
May God bless this marriage with many happy years.
Scott, it is open for business. Long lines to get to see inside it.
Lovely story
Fantastic
Hand-carving oak beams for three years
Reminds me of Weiss, who spent 40 years working on the LIGO project before the first gravity waves were detected. It is an amazing bit of hardware.
As a carpenter I spent 3 years renovating Seattle’s Pike Place Market (1976-1979), one of my most rewarding experiences ever. As far as I am aware, however, no one has ever been married there 🙂
https://www.pikeplacemarket.org/market-history/
After the next “accidental” fire razes Notre dame to the ground, they will accede and rebuild with minarets
Jesus and St. Joseph (both carpenters!) must be smiling.
I wonder how much sizing was.done at.the.mill, or.was.all.sizing done on site?
American right-wingers often criticize the governments of western Europe these days, and usually for excellent reasons. But fairness demands that we note when they get something right, too.
When Notre Dame burned, the Macron government was inundated with suggestions (of varying degrees of demandingness) about what changes to make when it was rebuilt. One architect thought they should add Islamic minarets as a gesture to interfaith unity. Another wanted a transparent glass ceiling.* There was talk of new ‘modern’ stained glass images. It was the usual potpourri of modernist ‘progressive’ nonsense plus architects on ego trips.
To their lasting credit, Macron and/or his appointees and officials rejected all that nonsense, instead opting to recreate the cathedral as close as was practical to what it was before, right down to the hand-cut wooden beams. The result was an amazing restoration, and the French deserve credit for getting this one right, and in a reasonable time frame, too.
*I actually like some modern buildings with transparent ceilings. But it had no place in this.
Great post!
(Why didn’t my feed show me this already? Too much Econ… & politics.)
For those who want more econ stats, plus ai, here’s a link.
https://econstats.org/
Sennacherib – from an older Neo post:
https://thenewneo.com/2020/09/23/update-on-notre-dame-the-cathedral-not-the-university/
The reconstruction of Notre Dame relied on both modern and ancient techniques. The wooden trusses were built onsite using medeival building methods. Lifting the trusses into place relied on massive modern cranes to place the trusses into final position. The main problem according to the narrator was not the carpentry but the stone masonry. Much of this ancient craft has been forgotten.
It is worth remembering that after WWII ( two not eleven) dozens, if not hundreds of German cathedrals and monuments were reconstructed using ancient methods and modern technology. One of the finest examples of this was the reconstruction of Dresden’s Frauenkirche. The german firm I worked for was the Primary Contractor for Masonry and Structural Shell. Each stone in the rubble was measured, catalogued and reused in the reconstructed church. An inspiring
feat, like the rebuild of Paris’ Notre Dame, connecting the past with the present.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABhKy0dk3QU
Another look at Dresden:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc9PScONCSo
Thank you Xylourgos. My dad was a masonry person see: Elizabeth.Ney museum renovation .