This month marks the 30th year anniversary of Disneyland Paris —the first Disney theme park to debut outside of the United States. To mark this auspicious milestone, Disney Paris’ iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle, which inhabits a prime place in the park’s center, has undergone a major renovation. The most visited castle in France, this fairytale building is now ready for a very impressive second act (or at least another three decades welcoming families). According to Tracy Eck, artistic director at Walt Disney Imagineering Paris, “The castle looks real with our fairy-tale touch. There are so many castles in France that people can go and see, it was important that ours had something different, a magic quality.”

Elegant elements of the Castle in position for restoration and renovation.

Rising 141 feet over the park, the castle took 50,000 hours to renovate—suffering major setbacks during that time as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. As Eck explains, “This all took two years in the planning and typically, we only work at night and never during the day. But with [Covid-19], we were able to work when the park had to close (because of lockdown).” Building a castle in France, which is home to over 40,000 chateaux, was not only an artistic and technical challenge, but also a cultural one.

Eck recalls that back in 1990, she was just starting out as a lighting designer and the Castle was originally being conceived. “This is a Sleeping Beauty Castle, it’s the story. The only other one in the world is in Anaheim, California,” she says. “Because we were entering Europe, we had to design and adapt to where we were. There are so many fantastic craftsmen here and the castle had a completely new design, and there was a lot of research that went into it.”

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When it worked on its original design, Disney traveled throughout Europe for guidance. They went to look at Mont Saint Michel and various other castles in France to draw inspiration and gather ideas. They looked at the Hospices de Beaune in Eastern France for the tiled roofs and used some of the same craftsmen that originally built this celebrated landmark. They also looked at the beautiful stained glass windows at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

A Castle detail

“Everything received some kind of attention and every surface was touched in some way,” Eck says. “The castle is a giant set and the ground floor is one scale and the rest, like a huge movie set. The towers were built off site and brought in.”

In some ways, after 30 years of wear and tear, the castle needed to be renovated like any other property (well, almost like any other property!) Owing to decades of use, it had to be repainted and the roof fixed, water proofing, the usual and expected demands of a house. Add in fireworks every night of the year, plus water shows and flamethrowers and it’s surprising a total refurbishment was not required sooner. Additionally, it seems there is also an accumulation of detritus that just piles up from previous events and activity — and all of that needed to be cleared away as well.

Cutting new material for the renovation.

“We had to upgrade the electrical system, incorporate new lighting designs, remount special effects,” Eck adds. So, on one hand, normal property upkeep plus other upgrades to keep the magic alive and functioning on a daily basis. The crews on-site were expansive – and included painters, electricians, carpenters, as well as gilders, tile makers, roofers, etc. There were nine suppliers in total, all French, some of which typically only work with French national monuments.

One of the most significant names was the esteemed carpentry firm Le Bras Frères , which was tapped to oversee the exterior renovations and happens to have its workshops in proximity to the Park (that is when they’re not busy helping to restore Notre-Dame itself, which was notoriously almost destroyed during its now infamous 2019 fire ). The fact that such a prestigious and well known enterprise as Le Bras Frères accepted to work on the Sleeping Beauty Castle was an aha moment for Disneyland Paris. Eck explains proudly, “When they accepted the job, this was huge. In the minds of some people, we had moved into the category of a national monument. This was so moving. We are the number one tourist destination in Europe and this is impressive and for me, a big wow moment.”

Indeed, originally tasked with renovating the spire of Notre-Dame before the blaze, Le Bras Frères was forced to switch gears due to the fire and has spent the past two years installing a range of temporary structures to secure Notre-Dame’s arches.  This work was successfully completed last fall and reconstruction of the cathedral is now ready to begin. Clearly such delicate and historic know-how came into good use when Le Bras Frères turned their attention to Disneyland Paris and Sleeping Beauty Castle.

A worker tackles one of the many finely-designed castle flourishes; most of the restoration work was completed by hand.

Adrien Beaugendre, Project Manager at Le Bras Frères, founded in 1954, says: “The most interesting challenge for us was the towers. We had to install them overnight, for example, and this was a challenge. We had scanned the entire site and worked out all the details and dimensions, but there is always something unknown. The good surprise was that everything went well and honestly, we were lucky. We are very proud of our work and some of our workers had grown up with Disneyland Paris, so it was nice for them to rediscover it now.”

From working on the restoration of Notre-Dame to the Sleeping Beauty Castle, Beaugendre adds, “We did work a bit differently than with an historic monument, but a tower is a tower and all the metalwork was worked in the traditional techniques. The roofs aren’t just decoration, they are like any other building site.”

The Castle is so unique that its color scheme features a whopping 14 different shades of pink!

In total, the refurbishment included over 370 gallons of paint, 41,200 sheets of gold leaf, 19,900 slate roof tiles and 14 shades of pink. All hand painted and applied. The castle also features a 79-foot long dragon, the only one of its kind in the Disney portfolio.

Since its opening in 1992, over 375 million visitors have poured into Disneyland Paris. Now, as it kicks off its 30th anniversary this week, the park is offering new shows and surprises for all. At the center of everything is the Sleeping Beauty Castle, bright and shining and full of magic ever ready to delight all visitors, young and old. Disneyland Paris, where magic gets real.