There is, despite the salve of the idea of a phoenix rising from ashes, the charred and water-logged reckoning around repairing whatever remains after fire’s destructive power. In the wake of conflagration, questions arise regarding the rebuilding, restoring or reconstructing of damaged buildings and the art and craft work they may contain. In Canada, there are any number of historical and contemporary examples where important structures have suffered enormous fires and have been replaced, rebuilt or restored.

I: Historical church fires

In 1849, what became known as the first Great Fire of Toronto saw the destruction of much of the downtown core of the city, including the neo-classical St. James Cathedral, originally constructed in 1831. After an international competition with entries from the United States and British North America, it was rebuilt in the gothic revival style between 1850 and 1853 to the designs of Frederick William Cumberland and Thomas Ridout Jr.

In 1886, in Vancouver, St. James’ Anglican Church was destroyed when much of that city of wooden buildings was levelled. The fire was so intense that the church bells — which were rung by Father Henry Fiennes-Clinton to alert citizens of the approaching flames — melted into lumps of metal. The church was rebuilt in wood (only to be demolished in 1937 and rebuilt in concrete in the art modern style).

In Ottawa, in February 1916, fire destroyed the elaborate sandstone gothic revival centre block of the parliamentary complex designed in 1859 by Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones. It was rebuilt to plans by John A. Pearson and Jean-Omer Marchand in a complementary hybrid revival and Beaux-Arts style with a steel frame and a noticeable absence of wood in the interiors, and opened in February 1920.

Notre-Dame de Quebec, interior, 2017. PHOTO: Dennis Jarvis. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

In 1922, Montréal’s Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral (in an alleged act of arson by the Klu Klux Klan) was virtually destroyed, with only the exterior wall standing and resulted in the devastating loss of religious artifacts and artworks. Plans were immediately laid for the church’s restoration, and it was rechristened in October 1925.

*St Boniface Cathedral, Winnipeg, showing the 1972 reimagining*, 2018. PHOTO: Jessica Losorata. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

The aftermath of the 1968 fire at Winnipeg’s St. Boniface Cathedral (the church’s third fire) saw the acclaimed Franco-Manitoban architect Étienne Gaboury seek a middle ground for the sacred structure’s restoration between 1969 and 1972, in what was an inspired act of reimagining. The facade and roofless walls were stabilized and Gaboury designed a striking, late modernist place of worship — small in comparison to what it replaced — which incorporated parts of the old cathedral’s fabric, including the sacristy.

And, almost immediately, Gaboury’s landmark work in Winnipeg became a model for creative and sensitive architectural restoration.

*St Boniface Cathedral, Winnipeg, Between 1908 façade and back of new cathedral, 2012.* PHOTO: Stevfan. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

II The Compagnons

In December 2017, BBC correspondent Hugh Schofield published an article profiling the Compagnons du Devoir (Companions of Duty), the French organization of skilled craftspeople founded in the 14th century. At the time the article went live, it seems unlikely that Schofield anticipated that his article would become a prescient championing of stone carving, woodworking, gilding and other ancient skills that were enlisted in the aftermath of the Notre-Dame Fire in April 2019. Schofield wrote about the historical origins of the Compagnons, and the training and responsibilities of its mostly male members, its communal structure, the rituals and clothing of apprenticeship, and the nomadic five-year tour its new members take around France to learn about regional artisanal practices. Schofield not only made clear the contemporary relevance of the apprenticeship model of the Compagnons as vital in the efforts to battle youth unemployment, he also offered a considered argument of the importance of preserving long-standing artisanal practices. Schofield’s article was an acknowledgment of the power of historical mindedness, and the esthetic and cultural benefits in stewarding old buildings and objects. The insoluble and satisfying links between the past, present and future are vital in the operations of culture [1].

There is value in thinking about culture and heritage as both material objects and buildings as well as the systems of meaning in which they exist.

*Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, spire on fire*, 2019. PHOTO: Guillaume Levrier. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

III: The restoration of Notre-Dame

In December 2024, the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral reopened after five years of closure required after a fire broke out that caused extensive structural damage. The assessment of the fire damage after the April 2019 blaze revealed the vulnerability of the building. The announcements of the plans for Notre-Dame’s restoration made clear that the restoration project would go far beyond structural repairs to constitute a reimagining of a building inseparable from national identity and history. The restoration represented a distinct additional chapter in the near 1,000-year-old history of the cathedral, which has accumulated acts of desecration, restoration and remodelling. Among countless others, the cathedral has contained the work and legacies of the interventions and design inventions of architects Jean-Baptiste Lassus and Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc who were tasked with its renovation in 1844. For Viollet-le-Duc, the design of the cathedral’s treasury represented balancing archaeological devotion to the religious architecture and esthetics of the 13th century and contemporary, romanticized ideas of the same. Central in Viollet-le-Duc’s work was his commissioning of new furnishing, reliquaries and glass windows that were harmonious with the ancient structure. Viollet-le-Duc’s work and vision were frequently referenced in the development of the plans for the rebuilding of the cathedral after the 2019 fire. Both civic and church leaders voiced commitment to historical accuracy in the restoration of the building and for the introduction of contemporary works of craft and design where appropriate. The result was a project that married cutting-edge engineering and science with traditional construction methods to honour the historical and living character of the structure.

Using hard stone from the Croix-Huyart quarry located in Oise, northern France, expert masons trained in ancient techniques repaired the damaged vaulting in the north transept, nave, crossing and choir vault. Softer stone from quarries in Saint-Maximin, Oise, and Soissons, Aisne, was used for the replacement of some other vaults and carved elements [2]. And despite initial concerns about the absence of sufficient old growth oak trees to provide wood for the restoration, carvers and artisans painstakingly recreated the destroyed wooden ceiling using drones to locate over 1,000 suitable trees. In the interior of the cathedral, with its extensive fire and water damage, the restoration of painted wall decorations were undertaken using state-of-the-art conservation procedures, including the use of fine needles and glue to affix to the stone walls’ miniscule paint fragments that were recovered in the days after the blaze.

Plans to replace Viollet-le-Duc’s stained glass windows were met with widespread objection, and eventually discarded. Paris-based sculptor and designer Guillaume Bardet was chosen by the archbishop of Paris to create new cathedral furniture. His designs — realized in glowingly patinated bronze — included three chairs, among them the bishop’s cathedra (seat). Bardet also designed a suite of liturgical vessels of gold and silver that adapted ancient forms in contemporary ways. Minimalist and solemn, Bardet’s objects reveal the power of contemporary adaptation of ancient forms.

In similar visionary ways, the Franco-Spanish designer Ionna Vautrin fashioned minimalist and warmly elegant armless oak chairs for use by “the faithful and the future visitors of the cathedral,” with 1,500 chairs made from oak harvested from sustainable forests and produced by Bosc, a furniture design company that had been designated as an Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (Company of Living Heritage), an official conferment that recognizes “craftsmanship and industrial excellence [3].

And perhaps the most dramatic is the commission given to renowned architect and artist Sylvain Dubuisson for the reliquary wall housing the Crown of Thorns, arguably the most important of the cathedral’s many sacred treasures. Dubuisson’s creation, as dazzling as it is intricate, is composed of two integrated elements: a large, intricate square cedar wood wall that references an iconostasis (a Byzantine architectural element) and an open circle at its centre intended to hold the crown.

The rebirth of Notre-Dame de Paris is an undertaking sitting at the intersection of national identity, faith, science, historical knowledge, responsive expertise and a vibrant appreciation for craftsmanship and design. It is a project of immense logistical complexity — with restoration estimated to cost just over C$1 billion — that speaks to the inestimable importance of history and its tangible manifestations.

IV: Infrastructural craft in Canada

Schofield’s profile of the Compagnons in the context of French national culture, and the subsequent work that artisans and craftspeople play in restoring damaged heritage, invites reflection both about the particularities of craft in France and the championing of the preservation of artifacts.

The fire at St. Anne's Anglican Church, 2024. PHOTO: VelvetGloveinTO. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

In Toronto, in the aftermath of the horrendous fire on June 9, 2024, that gutted St. Anne’s Church in Toronto, Gaboury’s brilliant remaking of St. Boniface was quickly referenced. Built between 1907 and 1908 in the Byzantine Revival style, St. Anne’s was designated as a national landmark in 1997, and was renowned for its religiously themed murals by members of the Group of Seven [4]. The 1923 mural project was overseen by J.E.H. MacDonald, who recruited F.H. Varley and Frank Carmichael to depict the life of Christ [5]. And while decisions have not been made about the church’s reconstruction, Toronto Art Restoration Inc. has undertaken the restoration of some of the artworks (fragments of which were found on the church’s floor days after the fire had been extinguished) [6].

As disaster and emergency management scholar Jack Rozdilsky notes, there was widespread awareness about the building’s vulnerability including the absence of sprinklers and other fire prevention technologies. These were not addressed, suggesting that despite the recognition of the importance of cultural heritage, its strategic safeguarding seems not to be a priority. Importantly, precedents from Winnipeg and the expertise of art restorers may be able to bring back art from the rubble of disaster.

And here, it is worth noting how the settler nation’s dominating interest in the new at the expense of what can be called historical mindedness and historical fabric, the training of successive generations of experts in restoration and repair is comparatively weak. Not only does Canada lack comprehensive legislation protecting heritage, but the cultural sensibilities of France, for example, have not been cultivated. The work of institutions such as the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts in Queenston, Ont., and its affiliate, the Canadian chapter of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (founded in 2001 by His Majesty King Charles III), need to be acknowledged because of the importance of training people in specialized skills and supporting the awareness of the inestimable value of cultural heritage in contemporary society. Other programs include: the National Parks Service’s Traditional Trades Advancement Program; a graduate certificate in cultural heritage conservation and management at Fleming College, in Peterborough, Ont.; a course in the preservation, rehabilitation and restoration of heritage buildings at Durham College at its two campuses in Whitby and Oshawa, Ont.; a course on standards and guidelines for historic restoration offered by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada; and the Young Canada Works at Building Careers in Heritage program offered by Canadian Heritage.

In Canada — a “young” country by some standards — cultural programs, institutions and training organizations have neither the legacies of centuries of craft training and knowledge nor the comparable appreciation for the values of the skills that defined the remaking of Notre-Dame. While there are professionals, like the restorers of the murals of St. Anne’s, who work tirelessly in the face of disaster, it can be argued that Canadian society is only responsive to the unthinkable; it is not strategically committed to the preservation of historic skills even though it benefits the national settler history — the collective memory of the past — and enables the application of such expertise in the wake of any injury to the country’s tangible markers of time, place and existence.

[1] Hugh Schofield, “The French Apprentices Thriving on Medieval Roots”, BBC News, accessed January 20, 2025, at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42365048.

[2] See “Providing the Stone”, Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris, https://rebatirnotredamedeparis.fr/en/restoration/providing-the-stone .

[3] As Sylvain Bastiat, the commercial director Bosc explained in a discussion of Vautrin’s design, “The Archbishop of Paris wanted almost silent chairs that would highlight the cathedral’s architecture. The designer proposed a chair with a lower backrest, making it easier for worshippers to lean on while praying” and which allowed light to pass through its structure. See “1,500 certified chairs for Notre-Dame de Paris – interview with producer Sylvain Bastiat”, PEFC France [Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification], August 9, 2024, https://pefc.org/news/1-500-certified-chairs-for-notre-dame-de-paris-interview-with-producer-sylvain-bastiat. See also Ionna Vautrin, “Notre-Dame de Paris’s seats,” https://www.ionnavautrin.com/work/notredame-de-paris .

[4] Jack L. Rozdilsky, “The St. Anne’s Church fire in Toronto serves as a cautionary tale to preserve our cultural heritage,” Canadian Architect, August 28, 2024, https://www.canadianarchitect.com/the-st-annes-church-fire-in-toronto-serves-as-a-cautionary-tale-to-preserve-our-cultural-heritage/ .

[5] Matthew Puddister, “Fire Destroys Historic St. Anne’s Anglican Church along with priceless artwork,” Anglican Journal, June 11, 2024, https://anglicanjournal.com/fire-destroys-historic-st-annes-anglican-church-along-with-priceless-artwork/ .

[6] Talia Ricci, “Priceless Canadian art pieces from St. Anne’s Church fire wreckage being brought back to Iife,” CBC News, December 5, 2024, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pieces-of-art-st-annes-1.7401352 .

This article is available in print in the Spring/Summer 2025 issue of Studio Magazine.