Notre Dame will reopen today in Paris after reconstruction.
President Emmanuel Macron will give a speech at the cathedral in the presence of 3 thousand guests, including 50 heads of state and government. Donald Trump announced his presence at the ceremony, and Vladimir Zelensky was among the guests.
After Macron’s speech, Parisian Archbishop Laurent Ulrich knocked on the door with a stick and solemnly entered the temple to the sound of an organ. The next day, Sunday, the archbishop will celebrate the first Mass in the restored cathedral, during which the new bronze altar will also be consecrated.
The grand opening of the cathedral will take place under increased security measures. Paris will turn into a fortress: about 6 thousand will monitor the observance of order. security officers. It is expected that about 40 thousand people will gather to see the restored cathedral over the weekend.
After a devastating fire in April 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris took a long time to be restored. After 69 months of renovation, the architectural symbol of Paris is back.
Hundreds of guests are invited to the ceremony, including several dozen heads of state. Among the participants are German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, heir to the British throne Prince William and US President-elect Donald Trump.
In total, approximately 50 monarchs, as well as heads of state and government, want to show with their presence that Notre Dame is also a famous name in their country and how much they care about the reconstruction. Current US President Joe Biden will be represented by his wife Jill.
During the ceremony, which will be led by the Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich, a message from Pope Francis will be read.
President Emmanuel Macron proposed giving the cathedral a modern look, but the French insisted on preserving its historical appearance.
For Macron, being at the center of re-creation and attention these days is very important, writes Politico. He had just accepted the resignation of a government that, for the second time in history, had received a vote of no confidence from the National Assembly. In addition, a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky is possible in Paris.
Recovery
The massive walls and two main tower facades survived, but about a thousand cubic meters of limestone needed to be replaced. The roof and spire, made of oak, were completely burned. To restore them, two thousand oak trunks were used, hand-processed using historical technologies.
The President gave special permission to use 460 tons of lead to restore the roof, despite the current ban on such materials. Interior work, including cleaning the sooty limestone, continued after the Olympic Games.
Although the cathedral was restored to its original form, some elements, such as the altar, font and seats, were recreated and given a modern look.
First, it was necessary to record the full extent of the damage; for this, a robot with a camera was used. All areas on the Ile de la Cité and beyond the banks of the Seine that were contaminated with lead during the fire also had to be cleared before work could begin.
Macron appointed former army chief of staff Jean-Louis Georgelin to lead the mammoth undertaking to restore the cathedral. Together with the temple’s chief architect, he led an army of engineers, craftsmen, masons and sculptors, designers and specialists in lighting and interior decoration.
Georgelin died in 2023 and did not survive the inauguration. His work was continued by his deputy, Philip Yost.
Looking back, he says that perhaps the most difficult task was finding more than a thousand oak trees to build the timber beam roof structure according to the historical plans:
It is stable, airy and ages well. This lasted 800 years. And we reproduced it in an identical way, so it will age (again) for a long time. The ingenuity of the cathedral builders was extraordinary.
Macron delivers on his reconstruction promise
The very next day after the fire in April 2019, Macron said that he suffered from the fire in the same way as his other compatriots. He promised them:
We will rebuild Notre Dame even more beautiful than before. And I want it to be completed in five years.
Such a short recovery time sounded almost insane given the massive amount of damage. But in this case, Macron kept his promise: five years after the fire, the restored cathedral could be reopened on Saturday evening with a religious celebration and a social show featuring famous guests from around the world. and representatives of all faiths
Pope Francis apologized because he will not go to Paris. The reason: he wants to honor the French Mediterranean island of Corsica with a visit in a week.
There were rumors that the Vatican was worried about how the French president wanted to put himself in the center of attention with his secular ceremony and push the religious nature of the holiday into the background.
Reconstruction through donations
The fact that the cathedral can be resurrected in such a short time is an extraordinary achievement for which the “builder” Macron was able to use all the talents at his disposal. Perhaps it was a little easier for the President of the Republic to make such ambitious promises, since it was not his treasury that had to financially support the difficult work that had to be done to restore the cathedral “identically.”
After the terrible fire, 340 thousand donors from all over the world wanted to finance the reconstruction of more than 800 million euros. Among the companies willing to participate and make a name for themselves as philanthropists were large French corporations with particularly large sums of money. For example, Bernard Arnault from the LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE group donated 200 million).
From Monday 9 December, after the first public Mass, the completely renovated Notre Dame can be visited again. And by the way, it’s still free.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.