Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, damaged by a fire, should reopen its doors for the Marian feast of December 8, 2024. ‘It will be fully accessible for offices and for visitors’, according to Philippe Jost, of the Reconstruction Authority .
On December 8, the Catholic Church will celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, patroness of the Parisian cathedral. “We will then discover a cathedral as we have never seen it before,” he said as he opened an exhibition on the restoration under the cathedral forecourt. The renovation is on schedule.
Even following the reopening, the exterior of the cathedral will continue to be restored, but these works will no longer have anything to do with the consequences of the terrible fire of April 15, 2019.
The exhibition on the progress of the restoration work also aims to interest young people in related trades. “We are having trouble recruiting the next generation,” said Philippe Philippe Jost. Restoration requires experts, such as foresters who choose the right trees to rebuild the framework, stonemasons, carpenters, industrial climbers as well as restorers and organ tuners.
“The work inside the cathedral has progressed well,” said Philippe Jost. The organ, barely damaged by the fire but very dirty, has been cleaned in the meantime, he added. The reassembly of the largest organ in France, with its approximately 8,000 pipes, should be done at night, when no noise disturbs the work.
Interior design competition
The Archdiocese of Paris has launched a competition to redevelop the interior of the church. This concerns in particular the altar, the baptismal font and the 1,500 seats. Due to the strict separation of Church and State, the archdiocese has no decision-making power regarding the restoration of the church. The Parisian cathedral, like all religious buildings built before 1905, is state property.
The fire had triggered an international wave of aid. In total, 854 million euros in donations had been collected. It was decided to rebuild the cathedral identically and with original materials.
The 19th-century roof spire, which had caught fire spectacularly and collapsed inside the cathedral through the roof, is due for completion this year.
/ATS