(RNS) — The Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan is hosting an exhibition on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, revisiting its 850-year history using augmented reality. Histovery, the French tech startup behind the project, hopes it will attract history nerds and tech enthusiasts alike.
The “Notre Dame de Paris: Augmented Exhibition,” which runs through the end of January, opened as Notre Dame reopened after its five-year restoration, a coincidence of the calendar but one that the Very Rev. Patrick Malloy, dean of St. John’s, called symbolic. He said the two monuments have a kinship as two of the world’s most renowned Gothic cathedrals, both of which were damaged by fires in April 2019.
Though less widely known than Notre Dame’s fire, St. John’s conflagration began in its crypt during Palm Sunday services in 2019, forcing worshippers to evacuate and resume worship on the church’s lawn. The fire at Notre Dame broke out a day later. (The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was investigating possible connections between the two fires, said Malloy.)
And while St. John’s fire did not result in a five-year-long closure, as Notre Dame’s did, the smoke from the crypt fire did c …