French President Emmanuel Macron promised on Friday that the restoration of the Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, which was seriously damaged by a fire in 2019, will be completed in time for its reopening scheduled for December 2024. He also announced that he would ask Pope Francis will invite for reopening.
“The invitation will be made, but it is not for me to respond on his behalf,” he said during an interview with France 2, when asked about the Pope’s possible presence.
“We will meet the deadline,” Macron told journalists as he inspected the site, exactly a year before the scheduled date.
Macron had initially promised that Notre Dame would be restored within five years, in time for the Paris Olympics next summer.
But after the first setbacks during the reconstruction, a new deadline was set.
The restoration of the UNESCO-listed building, which hosted 12 million visitors a year, has faced several obstacles since people around the world watched in horror as the bell tower collapsed in the fire on April 15, 2019.
The new tower is now beginning to rise on the French capital’s skyline and is expected to be fully completed when the city hosts the Olympic Games.
Behind the scaffolding, hundreds of workers are racing against the clock to restore the rest of the cathedral in time to reopen to the public on December 8, 2024.
The monument’s new spire is identical to the previous one, designed by the 19th century architect Eugene Viollet-Le-Duc.
The oak construction is expected to reach a maximum height of 96 meters by the end of the year.
It is then covered with lead ornaments before the scaffolding is dismantled.
This is followed by the reconstruction of the cathedral’s nave and choir structures, which were also destroyed. Once completed, reconstruction of the roof will begin.
The initial five-year deadline was abandoned when reconstruction was delayed for months by remediation efforts after the fire melted more than 300 tons of lead from the roof.
Authorities then had to stop work several times during the first winter due to high winds, before France went into lockdown in early 2020 to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
More than five years after the fire, three investigating judges are conducting further investigation into its causes.
An initial investigation suggested it was an accident due to an electrical fault or a cigarette.
Macron said a competition will be held to design six contemporary stained glass windows for the cathedral – the only “21st century touch” to the monument, which will otherwise be rebuilt exactly as it was.
Macron also announced the creation of a museum in central Paris dedicated to Notre Dame, its history, its art “and its ongoing reconstruction.”
Source: DN
