Notre Dame de Paris is on track to meet its scheduled reopening in time for Christmas 2024, but every one of us will soon have a chance to rebuild the iconic cathedral with LEGO blocks. This June, LEGO has planned to release an official architectural set for Paris’ beloved Notre Dame.
Far from the painful-to-step-on children’s building blocks of the past, the LEGO Architecture series are highly detailed and geared towards adult model enthusiasts. Previous releases in the series include Japan’s Himeji Castle (2,125 pieces), the Great Pyramid of Giza (1,476 pieces), the Statue of Liberty (1,685 pieces), and the Taj Mahal (2,022 pieces).
Builds of this series are often large, intricate models that require a steady hand for the tiny pieces and plenty of patience to complete. They also tend to come at a higher price than normal LEGO fare.
4,400 pieces!
The LEGO model of Notre Dame de Paris is expected blow the scale of past releases out of the water. Design Times reports that the Notre Dame model will require some 4,400 pieces to complete, practically doubling previous LEGO Architecture builds. Ringing up at around $240, LEGO’s Notre Dame model will be the most expensive of the series by about $100.
In the past, LEGO has released multiple builds of the Architecture series per year, but Notre Dame will be the only one released in 2024. The intention was to create a more detailed model that will take more effort and care to build; a challenge for builders that will require more dedication and time to complete.
Fox Business notes that LEGO does not usually release models of religious buildings, but Notre Dame’s historic architecture holds a special significance to France that goes beyond religious themes. Previously, the only religious building to be modeled by LEGO was the Taj Mahal, which is also prized for its unique and iconic architecture.
LEGO has yet to reveal exactly how the model will look, but there is a way to get an idea of it. In 2023, Aleteia reported on an improvised Notre Dame LEGO build by Lionel Baudot, a resident of Metz, France. His model utilized 63,000 legos, took 6 months to build, and could even light up.
