The Summer Olympics have reignited a common misconception about Notre Dame

polygon.com:

During the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris, a hooded Assassin parkour’d across the Parisian rooftops while bearing the Olympic torch — a fitting introduction, referencing France’s long history in game development, and possibly a gesture of gratitude to Ubisoft for a donation of 500,000 euros it pledged to the restoration of the Notre Dame cathedral.

There is still work to be done on the cathedral, but at this year’s Summer Olympics, thousands of people are seeing Notre Dame’s new spire for the first time. The spire was revealed in February, after years of reconstruction by teams of experts.

When Notre Dame caught fire in 2019, the spire and the wooden roof were completely destroyed, and damage throughout the cathedral was extensive. Aside from donating, Ubisoft also made Assassin’s Creed Unity free on PC for a week after the fire. The game’s digital recreation of Notre Dame is a gem, a glorious tribute to one of the world’s most famous landmarks. It’s so accurate that people started asking whether or not Ubisoft’s models for the cathedral could even be used to help rebuild it.

It was wishful thinking, as the video game version of the cathedral is not a 1:1 accurate model. But emotionally, it tells us what people consider important about the cathedral. And it all comes down to the spire.

You see, the spire that adorns Notre Dame cathedral — the one that was rebuilt in Paris in 2024, the one that players can climb in the game — was first completed in 1859. It didn’t exist until almost 100 years after the time Assassin’s Creed Unity takes place. The spire that did adorn Notre Dame during the time period covered by the game was a decaying wooden one, and it was torn down in 1793.

Notre Dame, like all church property, was a target of the French Revolution. In fact, Revolutionaries ceremonially beheaded the statues of Biblical kings that adorn the facade of the cathedral. But according to everything I have read, the spire came down simply because it was old and