Master carpenter Andres Uus took part in the work, following the devastating fire which hit the cathedral just before Easter 2019.

Uus told "Ringvaade" that his handiwork can be seen in the first and third trusses of the cathedral's roof structure.

He had never done work which required such an ultra degree of precision before, with even every millimeter subdivided into even smaller units, Uus said.

"The most complex truss was the second one," Uus added, noting that his part of the overall restoration is but a small part, in comparison with the stonemasonry required.

"I have been working with wood bit by bit for 25 years, and my interest in restoring old buildings has lasted about the same length of time," he said.

"Through this, I have also made some international connections. Every year, I've tried to go somewhere at least once, to work on something jointly," Uus added.

Appropriately, Uus is a member of the "Carpenters Without Borders" movement, which made the project even more feasible.

Uus is not a full-time carpenter; he is a businessman in his daily life and primarily deals with office work, he clarified.

"I don't have a chisel and saw in hand every day; it's more of a hobby, and for my own enjoyment, I try to get my hands involved from time to time."

The faithful restoration of Notre-Dame and how to go about it involved many discussions and documentation.

"Since the cathedral has been studied extensively over time, practically every piece has been photographed and drawn; there was a very good basis to recreate it exactly, using traditional methods," Uus explained.

The work itself, although highly visible in the roof structures, was completed in Normandy, over 200 kilometers from the French capital, where a dummy run was completed.

"The actual work took place in a workshop run by a father-son company with a long tradition," Uus noted. "Everything was precisely marked out there, and the entire structure was assembled once before transporting one truss per week to Paris, where it was reassembled."

Although he could not attend the recent opening party for the carpenters, masons and other craftspeople, which hosted around 2,000, Uus did get to visit Notre-Dame itself in March, when a roof-raising celebration took place.

"For me, the main thing about this project is the people I work with and also the work itself. If it's a bigger and more grand project, then the feeling is also bigger and grander," he summed up.

The fire, which may have been caused by a discarded cigarette or by an electrical short circuit, destroyed the cathedral's iconic wooden spire and most of the wooden roof, and severely damaged the cathedral's stone upper walls.

The cathedral reopened just over a month ago, ending three years of reconstruction.

Another Estonian connection comes in the form of a hand-made grand piano, gifted to the cathedral for choir practice, and made by the Estonia firm.

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