The over 800-year-old Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France, encountered a travesty when a fire erupted during some restorative efforts in April of 2019, taking down the historic roofing and spire. Even while local fire departments worked to control the fire, hundreds of people pulled together to remove irreplaceable artwork, documents, and artifacts. The days afterward, others came together to donate funds to begin reconstruction efforts before it was even approved by the National Commission for Heritage and Architecture (CNPA). As of today, plans to reconstruct what was damaged are in place and should be complete by 2024.

"To restore a building is not to preserve it, to repair, or rebuild it; it is to reinstate it in a condition of completeness which could never have existed at any given time."
-Eug