In the early 1830s, the beginnings of a movement for the restoration of

medieval buildings appeared In France.

Viollet-le-Duc's "restorations" frequently combined historical fact

with creative modification. For example, under his supervision, Notre
Dame was not only cleaned and restored but also "updated," gaining its
distinctive third tower .

Another of his most famous restorations, the medieval fortified town of

Carcassonne, was similarly enhanced, gaining atop each of its many wall
towers, a set of pointed roofs that are actually more typical of northern
France.
Basic intervention theories of
historic preservation have
framed in the dualism – 1) the
retention of the status quo
versus 2) a "restoration" that
creates something that never
actually existed in the past.

Viollet-le-Duc wrote that

restoration is a "means to
reestablish [a building] to a
finished state, which may in fact
never have actually existed at
any given time.”