Notre-Dame Cathedral's gargoyles undergo makeover for grand reopening

As the world’s most famous cathedral prepares to open its doors once more on 8 December, the gargoyles are back, but this is far from their first makeover. 

The gargoyles are arguably the most famous part of Notre-Dame Cathedral, but it may be a surprise to learn that the gruesome faced statues most of us associate with Notre-Dame are not gargoyles, and that the majority of these statues were carved after the publication of Victor Hugo’s novel, "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame".

Notre-Dame began construction in 1163, but it was almost a century later that the cathedral was considered complete, in 1260. Before the 2019 fire it was one of the most-visited sites in Paris, attracting some 13 million visitors per year. But in the early 19th century, Notre-Dame was in much a sorrier state than it is today, some six weeks prior to its reopening. 

Gargoyles made their way into popular culture with Hugo’s "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". Contrary to what many millennial disciples of the Walt Disney version will remember, the gargoyles in Hugo’s novel were minor characters, and while he writes that Quasimodo would regularly speak to the statues in his solitude, they don’t speak back.

Disney’s version popularised the animated ‘gargoyles’ of Victor, Hugo and Laverne and is responsible for what many now believe is a gargoyle. Victor, Hugo and Laverne are in fact chimaeras, purely decorative statues with grotesque faces. A gargoyle is functional, with a spout in its mouth to evacuate water from the drains. The original gargoyles are thought to have been around since at least 600 CE, if folklore is to be believed.

“One of  the most famous and earliest tales about a gargoyle is from Rouen, Normandy,” says Dr Andrew Marr, historian and founder of