Despite controversy, designs for Notre Dame’s new windows go on display in Paris

The designs for six new stained-glass windows for the cathedral of Notre Dame have gone on show at the Grand Palais in Paris, despite a number of protests against the project.

The works by the French artist Claire Tabouret replace the monochrome windows commissioned by the architects Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus in the 19th century. The original windows suffered no damage in the fire that destroyed the cathedral’s spire five years ago, leading experts, architects and art historians to claim that replacing them would breach cultural guidelines.

However, in a gallery reached via three stories of circular stairs in the Grand Palais’ quiet south-western end, the building’s walls are lined with dazzling, full-scale, ink-on-paper maquettes of the cathedral’s new windows.

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