Their kinship sealed by fire, St. John the Divine brings Notre Dame to life in exhibition

(RNS) — The Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan is hosting an exhibition on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, revisiting its 850-year history using augmented reality. Histovery, the French tech startup behind the project, hopes it will attract history nerds and tech enthusiasts alike. 

The “Notre Dame de Paris: Augmented Exhibition,” which runs through the end of January, opened as Notre Dame reopened after its five-year restoration, a coincidence of the calendar but one that the Very Rev. Patrick Malloy, dean of St. John’s, called symbolic. He said the two monuments have a kinship as two of the world’s most renowned Gothic cathedrals, both of which were damaged by fires in April 2019. 

Though less widely known than Notre Dame’s fire, St. John’s conflagration began in its crypt during Palm Sunday services in 2019, forcing worshippers to evacuate and resume worship on the church’s lawn. The fire at Notre Dame broke out a day later.  (The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was investigating possible connections between the two fires, said Malloy.)

And while St. John’s fire did not result in a five-year-long closure, as Notre Dame’s did, the smoke from the crypt fire did cause St. John’s to ship its prodigious pipe organ across the country for rehabilitation. The organ played its first notes since its return last month, the same week Notre Dame reopened. The reverend sees symbolic connections in these odds, noting, “Their five years of rehabilitation and our five years of rehabilitation coincided.”

“Notre Dame and St. John the Divine are both symbols of resilience. Hosting this extraordinary exhibition connects two of the world’s most monumental cathedrals and invites our visitors to rediscover the past in a vibrant, new way,” wrote Malloy in a press release announcing the exhibition’s debut in November.

Malloy saw the exhibition for the first time in London, where it had debuted in February 2024 at Westminster Abbey, and he was immediately drawn to its use of augmented reality to plunge visitors into the cathedral’s world. The exhibition, he said, is in keeping with St. John’s efforts to incorporate technology into its worship and other programming. When he returned to New York, Malloy suggested St. John’s host the exhibition too. 

The augmented reality feature allows visitors “to move back and forward in time and to see Notre Dame de Paris before it was even a building when it was just a piece of land, and then see it gradually grow and change and then burn and be restored,” the dean said. The exhibition also includes photographs and a 3D reconstruction of the cathedral. 

Edouard Lussan, from left, producer associate chez Histovery; Asia Laird, Histovery managing director U.S. and Canada; and the Very Rev. Patrick Malloy, dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. (Courtesy photo)

Upon entering the cathedral’s St. James Chapel, visitors are invited to grab a “Histopad,” a touchscreen tablet on which they can watch scenes of medieval Paris and see the construction of Notre Dame unfold, introducing them to the different artisans involved in Notre Dame’s construction over nearly 200 years and showing highlights such as the construction of the Gothic choir in the late 12th century and the coronation of Emperor Napoleon I in 1804. 

A portion of the exhibition shows the steps in the $1 billion restoration project. The exhibition was produced in collaboration with the institution charged with the cathedral’s conservation and restoration, overseen by the French Minister of Culture. It is also sponsored by the French luxury company L’Oréal.