A touring exhibition about the fire-ravaged cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, will be in London next year and hosted in Westminster Abbey.
Yes, it’s an exhibition about a Catholic cathedral inside an Anglican abbey.
VR screenshot of the Notre Dame under construction (c) Westminster Abbey / Histovery
According to Westminster Abbey, visitors will be taken on an immersive and interactive journey through Notre Dame’s past, including the lavish wedding of King Henri IV, the glittering coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the 19th-century construction of Notre Dame’s iconic spire of Viollet-le-Duc, which was destroyed by the fire.
Revealing the story of the French gothic masterpiece, Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris), from its earliest origins in the 12th century and its 850-year history to its restoration following the devastating fire of 2019, it has been created by digital heritage specialists, Histovery, in collaboration with Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris, and is supported by L’Oréal Groupe.
The tour through Notre Dame’s history takes place in the Abbey’s Chapter House.
Chapter House (c) ianVisits
It has been designed to envelope the visitor in a multi-sensory experience—including audio of the cathedral’s organ and tolling bells, a full-size replica of one of the structure’s famed chimera statues, and a projection of one of Notre-Dame’s famous rose windows, which survived the fire.
The exhibition, Notre Dame de Paris, The Augmented Exhibition, will be part of Fraternité, a spring season of events at the Abbey celebrating the links between the UK and France with music, talks and events.
The exhibition opens on 7th Feb, and runs until 1st June 2024.
Exhibition entry is included in the price of admission with timed booking slots. You can book tickets from 1st December 2023 via the Notre Dame de Paris exhibition listing on the Abbey’s website.
Ticket prices (as of today)
- Adult: £29
- 1 Adult + 1 Child 6-17 years: £29
- Child 6-17 Years: £13
- Senior 65+: £26
- Student: £26
For regular visitors, the Abbey Association gives you unlimited visits for an annual membership fee of £45 – and frankly, considering that a single visit costs nearly £30, it’s almost always worth buying the Association ticket.
The Notre Dame de Paris is due to reopen again after restoration work at the end of 2024.
Wasn’t Westminster Abbey, along with most churches, originally a Catholic place of worship later absorbed into the Protestant Church of England?
Yes. The joke stands though.