‘Miraculous’: exquisite paintings saved from Notre Dame fire back on view

The bee hives on the roof also survived, along with dozens of treasures, including artworks, ancient books and relics saved in extremis as a chain of firefighters, police and city council workers formed to extract them.

The 13 “Mays” – part of a series of 76 large oil works painted by the best artists in France between 1630 and 1707 – had hung in the cathedral’s dimly lit side chapels, often overlooked by visitors.

Now they will go on public display, having been restored by experts from Mobilier National, the cultural body charged with conserving France’s historical objects, before being returned to Notre Dame in advance of its planned reopening in December.

Several were returned to the cathedral in 1802 and remained there until 1862, when the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who added the spire to Notre Dame, saw them as incompatible with his new architectural plans, and they were placed in the Louvre.

The exhibition features another nine religious paintings saved from the fire, and part of Notre Dame’s rarely seen 27m-long chancel rug, ordered by King Charles X of France, that was stored in a box at the time of the blaze and suffered only minor water damage.

The rug has been used only a handful of times for major events, including the marriage of Napoleon III, the first president of France and its last emperor, who died in exile in England in 1873.