Fun Fact: In 2019 Patrick received several inquiries about Notre Dame‘s construction from national news and TV reporters at time of the devasting fire in Paris that destroyed the cathedral’s roof, spire, and more.
Notre Dame Cathedral
Construction started on the matchstick model of Notre Dame cathedral in August 2010 and was completed April 1, 2012. The model took 298,000 matchsticks to complete. Although not his biggest model, Notre Dame is a favorite of many Matchstick Marvels’ patrons.
Notre Dame de Paris had been an interesting subject to Acton for years, but until the early 2000s and the advent of the Internet in the 1990s, he could not find information necessary to design and draw the model to exact scale. Ten years later he used a paper model to help with 3-dimensional visualization and scaling proportions, although many of his drawings and plans were developed through information he accessed on the Internet. Unlike the real cathedral’s construction, which was built beginning with the Apse in 1163, he began by building the west façade, then the transept, followed by the nave, choir, and roof and spire.
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