The Dome regilded, 2023 — the statue measured by the restoration record

2023 · stated November 2026

The campaign the file waited for: The Notre Dame entry carries the Dome's gilding history to 2005 and names the open question after it: whether any later regilding had happened. It has. In 2023 the university regilded the Dome and its statue — scaffolding rose beginning May 22, 2023, immediately after Commencement, the work ran about five months against a mid-October completion target, and the gilding was done by Conrad Schmitt Studios, the same studio that performed the 2005 regilding and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart's restoration. The upper tower was cleaned and repainted in the same campaign.

The statue, settled: The banked entry prints the size conflict open — "Notre Dame Magazine's regilding account gives 18 feet 7 inches; ND News has given 16 feet and 4,400 pounds; other retellings give 19 feet and 4,000 pounds." The restoration record — the named candidate for settling it — states the figure in its own words, twice: the university's works release describes "the 17-foot-tall statue of Our Lady," and its restoration account describes "the 17-foot-tall, 4,000-pound statue of Mary." Seventeen feet and 4,000 pounds is therefore the governing figure — the measurement of the office that maintains the statue, published in the record of the work that took the scaffolding to it. It matches none of the three older figures exactly; the 4,000-pound weight agrees with the third of them. Assembly adopts 17 feet and 4,000 pounds, and the three older figures remain in the entry as the printed history of the disagreement.

The count of gildings: The 2023 campaign's own list of prior gildings runs 1886, 1893, 1904, 1912, 1924, 1933, 1948, 1961, 1971, 1988, 2005 — eleven before 2023, making the 2023 work the twelfth gilding. Notre Dame Magazine's account, on which the banked entry rests, counted the regildings since the first gilding as nine as of 2005, which makes 2005 the tenth. The two counts differ by one somewhere before 2005; the university's project list governs the count printed here — the twelfth gilding, in 2023 — and the magazine's earlier counting is retained beside it, the difference unresolved in the sources.

The gold: The restoration account's figures: the Dome carries about 6,500 square feet of gilded surface, about 7,000 square feet counting the statue and the tower work with it; the gold is 23.75-carat "double gold," and the whole campaign — Dome and statue together — used less than ten pounds of it. A gilding is expected to last fifteen to twenty years, which is the rhythm the list of dates shows. One variance is carried at its size: the 2023 release dates the Dome and statue as added to the Main Building in 1883, where the banked entry documents the Dome finished in September 1882, ungilded, and first gilded in 1886; the banked entry's documented dates stand, and the release's 1883 is noted here and not harmonized.

Sources:

1. NDWorks (University of Notre Dame), news release, 2023, "Golden Dome to undergo regilding process following Commencement" (ndworks.nd.edu) — scaffolding from May 22, 2023; about five months; Conrad Schmitt Studios; "the 17-foot-tall statue of Our Lady"; the Dome and statue dated 1883 in the release.
2. Notre Dame Stories (stories.nd.edu), the 2023 regilding features, "Staying Gold" — "the 17-foot-tall, 4,000-pound statue of Mary"; about 6,500 square feet of Dome surface, about 7,000 in all; 23.75-carat double gold; less than ten pounds of gold; a gilding's fifteen-to-twenty-year life.
3. Michiana Business News, rendering of the university's 2023 release — the list of prior gildings: 1886, 1893, 1904, 1912, 1924, 1933, 1948, 1961, 1971, 1988, 2005.
4. Notre Dame Magazine, "Regilding the Dome" (magazine.nd.edu) — the banked entry's source: the statue at 18 feet 7 inches; the regildings since 1886 counted as nine as of 2005.
5. Notre Dame News, "Main Building turns 125 years old" (news.nd.edu) — the banked entry's source for 16 feet and 4,400 pounds.