The Swiss sawmill that helped resurrect Notre-Dame’s spire
Swiss entrepreneur Gauthier Corbat was involved in the restoration of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, which reopens with great fanfare this weekend. The oak wood that his company cut was used to rebuild the spire that burnt down five years ago.
On April 15, 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris was ravaged by fire. The building’s frame (roof and spire) was consumed by the flames, which also destroyed part of the vault and furniture.
A Gothic cathedral built between 1163 and the early 14th century, Notre-Dame is one of the most visited Christian monuments in the world. Famous for its beauty but also for its links to French history, its tragic fate aroused worldwide emotion.
The fire was brought under control the following day and French President Emmanuel Macron promised to rebuild the cathedral in five years. Today, that promise has been kept: Notre-Dame has been brought back to its former glory and the restored church will be inaugurated on December 7 and 8 in the presence of VIPs, including US President-elect Donald Trump.
An army of restorers
The restoration work was titanic in scale and made possible by donations from 150 countries. Nearly 340,000 donors helped raise the sum of €846 million (CHF786 million).
Hundreds of craftsmen, artists and workers contributed to the restoration of Notre-Dame: crane operators, architects, archaeologists, glassmakers, ropemakers, stonemasons and carpenters. The cast of tradespeople also included timber millers, without whom the cathedral’s oak framework would never have regained its splendour.
Forty sawmills were involved in the reconstruction work. Thirty-nine were French and one was Swiss: the Corbat family business, the largest oak sawmill in Switzerland. Based in Vendlincourt, a village in the canton of Jura, it was founded a hundred years ago.
For 39-year-old Corbat, working on the Notre-Dame restoration project was a unique highlight of his career. An art historian with a Master’s degree in European studies from the University of Geneva, he is also a canny entrepreneur.
Shortly after the fire, the French government initiated an official procedure to rebuild the church. A decision was made to rebuild the cathedral’s roof structure in oak, as in the Middle Ages. Corbat applied for the tender and received a positive response from the France Bois Forêt federation.
Cross-border connection
There are deep historical and commercial links between the Swiss Jura and France. Corbat’s family knows many of the players in the French timber industry, which made the task easier.
“Our geographical location has given us a great advantage,” admits Corbat. “We’re based in a border region. Our sawmill has several timber storage facilities in France, the main one being in Lure, in the Haute-Saône department”.
Corbat knew that his sawmill would not make money from the Notre-Dame restoration but it didn’t matter to him.
“I learned that Germany and England offered their own oak logs, which were turned down because the French authorities didn’t want any foreign wood,” confides the entrepreneur.
The logs stored at Lure were therefore French. Transported to Vendlincourt, they were cut in the Corbat sawmill, before reaching their final destination: the spire of Notre-Dame.
A medieval touch
Much more than just a pro bono contribution, Corbat sees his involvement in the Notre-Dame project as spiritual, and admits to having a special connection with Gothic art and its churches.
“It’s true that we used our standard techniques for the timber milling but we knew that this was an exceptional task, and that its completion was sacred,” he stresses.
Corbat’s firm milled 40 of the 2,000 pieces of wood destined for the church’s framework. His background and artistic education only served to heighten the sense of emotion.
“My role here is medieval. In the Middle Ages, craftsmen worked for a higher purpose, which was the case here,” he says.
Corbat says the project has aroused the curiosity of many of his compatriots. In French-speaking Switzerland, he has given talks to full houses, and has also received requests for collaboration from German-speaking Switzerland.
“The world-famous Blumer Lehmann company contacted me to help restore a 16th-century mosque on the border between Greece and Turkey,” he shares.
Aerial view of the restored cathedral below:
Contributing to the reconstruction of Notre-Dame has not only broadened Corbat’s horizons. He feels that the entire profession has been honoured.
“The recognition my company has received is all the more welcome because it is part of a prestigious project that shines a light on Switzerland and the expertise of an entire industry. The timber industry has not always received the recognition it deserves,” he concludes.
Edited by Samuel Jaberg/ac/ds
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