One year after Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral solemnly reopened to the public following the devastating 2019 fire, an old feud between heritage defenders and the French state — this time centered around its famous stained-glass windows — has been reignited.
It was hoped that the post-fire restoration, which also led to the decision to rebuild the spire and medieval wooden roof identically to the original, would bring this difficult chapter in the cathedral’s history to a close.
Instead, it has reopened the debate between the preservation of traditional artistry in the Gothic architectural masterpiece versus the integration of contemporary art.
The latest controversy was triggered by an exhibition being held at the Paris Grand Palais that features the designs selected for what are expected to become Notre Dame’s newest stained-glass windows, scheduled to be installed in 2026.
Chosen in 2024 following a state-backed competition, French painter Claire Tabouret was commissioned to create six contemporary windows to replace intact 19th-century stained glass designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc for the south aisle chapels of the nave.
The public presentation of the project has reignited tensions that many thought had been resolved after a similar debate surrounding the spire, also designed by Viollet-le-Duc.
Could the controversy surrounding the stained-glass windows be a belated revanche on the part of those who failed to impose a contemporary design on the exterior of the monument, even if it meant leaving their mark on parts that survived the fire?
The proposed stained-glass windows themselves are central to the debate — and the exhibition has finally made them visible to the public.
The new windows form a figurative cycle devoted to the Pentecost, depicting the Virgin Mary and the apostles gathered in the Upper Room.
The compositions are painted in a figurative style, populated by large, frontal figures, with an emphasis on bodily presence and emotional expression. Tabouret, who lives and works in California, has said she was drawn to Pentecost as a moment of “harmony, peace and respect within diversity,” a formulation that supporters interpret as an effort to make the scene immediately accessible to contemporary audiences.
Critics see it as introducing present-day moral language into a sacred and liturgical setting.
‘A 4-Million-Euro Whim’
The backlash was immediate, particularly among heritage specialists and figures on the political right.
Stéphane Bern, one of France’s most prominent defenders of historic heritage, has described the project, since its beginning, as the result of a presidential “whim.”
The Dec. 10 opening of the exhibition further fueled the anger of its opponents.
Heritage historian Éric Anceau denounced it as an unacceptable a fait du prince, warning that the Viollet-le-Duc windows — which had “miraculously resisted the fire” — were now to be removed in defiance of the French Heritage Code.
Several elected officials echoed that dismay. National Rally deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy described the proposed windows as being of “unspeakable ugliness,” while former MP Laurence Trochu condemned what she called a “4-million-euro caprice,” replacing intact, protected works at a time when much of France’s cultural heritage is deteriorating.
More nuanced in tone, philosopher Benjamin Olivennes, specializing in contemporary art, considered, “I don’t believe they will ‘stand out’ in the sense of clashing jarringly, proclaiming ugliness, or desecrating the place. However, they risk appearing of lesser quality than the rest …”
Support From the Parisian Church
Yet, reducing the controversy to a simple standoff between President Emmanuel Macron and his critics misses the fact that much of the Catholic leadership has supported the project.
The Archdiocese of Paris openly backed the introduction of contemporary, figurative stained glass with explicit catechetical intent and was represented on the committee that chose Tabouret’s work for the project.
Archbishop Laurent Ulrich himself has praised the initiative as a legitimate way of addressing the present age.
Dominican friar and well-known French influencer Father Paul-Adrien, has defended the project on these grounds, recalling that chapels’ walls were stripped of earlier decorative schemes in the 20th century.
For him, the new stained glass restores color, symbolism and a readable theological narrative, particularly through its focus on Pentecost.
“Those who attack the project don’t want Pentecost to be mentioned,” he said pointedly.
Supporters more broadly argue that the clarity of the figures and the intensity of the colors respond to the pale tones of the restored interior and reintroduce visual depth into the cathedral.
But critics remain unconvinced.
Their objection is generally not to contemporary art as such, but to what they perceive as a shift in meaning.
In their view, the emphasis on diversity and emotional expression risks translating a central mystery of the Church into the visual language of the present moment, weakening the symbolic coherence of a Gothic cathedral built around light, hierarchy and transcendence.
Appeals Dismissed Against a Popular Petition
For Didier Rykner, editor of the magazine La Tribune de l’Art and one of the project’s most outspoken opponents, the core issue is not the artist’s style but the logic behind the placement.
He has repeatedly argued that contemporary stained glass could legitimately find a place in parts of Notre Dame that never had such windows, notably the north tower, whose bays were damaged by the fire.
Such a solution, he contends, would make room for contemporary creation without dismantling intact elements conceived by Viollet-le-Duc as part of a coherent architectural whole.
Rykner, who called the project an act of “vandalism,” also initiated a petition calling for the Viollet-le-Duc windows to remain in place, which has since surpassed 325,000 signatures — a figure frequently cited by opponents as evidence of sustained public resistance.
Institutionally, however, the project has reached a stage in which reversal of the decision to replace the windows appears increasingly unlikely.
An appeal against the project by the Sites & Monuments’ heritage association was recently dismissed by the Paris Administrative Court.
Conversely, the National Heritage and Architecture Commission issued a favorable opinion supporting the new windows in June of this year.
Although Sites & Monuments is expected to lodge a final appeal, critics acknowledge that the remaining legal and administrative options are narrowing.
Beyond procedural disputes, opponents stress that stained glass cannot be reduced to a decorative feature.
By filtering light, it shapes the spiritual and visual experience of a Gothic cathedral.
This argument has been articulated by Maryvonne de Saint-Pulgent, former director general of heritage at the French Ministry of Culture, and by the Académie des Beaux-Arts, which warned against introducing contemporary works at the expense of décor spared by the fire.
The exhibition of Tabouret’s designs has made the fault lines clear, without bringing the dispute any closer to resolution.
With legal challenges almost exhausted and the project moving forward, the controversy surrounding Notre Dame’s stained glass is set to leave a bitter aftertaste among heritage advocates, even as supporters insist that the 19th-century windows by Viollet-le-Duc would not be destroyed but dismantled and displayed elsewhere.