‘This Restoration Will Take at Least a Decade’

Caroline Bruzelius, an architectural historian at Duke University, has scaled the heights of Notre Dame in ways that few people have—and she is thus all too aware of how fragile the cathedral remains in spite of being saved from total devastation during Monday night’s raging fire. Bruzelius, an expert in Gothic cathedrals, studied the revered structure closely from top to bottom nearly four decades ago when scaffolding was erected around it for cleaning, and she later wrote a scholarly article going into great detail about the building’s strengths and weaknesses. She spoke with Foreign Policy on Tuesday about the long road of reconstruction that lies ahead.