(Paris) The arrow can be seen at the top, behind the scaffolding of Notre-Dame de Paris, the great hand of time passing by: on December 8, 2024, the cathedral, ravaged by a fire in 2019, must reopen.
Parisians and tourists – 12 million visitors on average each year before the disaster – have their eyes in the heavens as they pass in front of this masterpiece of Gothic art built between the 12the and XIVe centuries. Next year will be momentous.
Beyond the fifth anniversary of the fire on April 15, the spire and silhouette of the cathedral – surrounded by scaffolding and watched over by cranes – are hoped for in the landscape of the Paris Olympics (July 26-August 11). And the date of December 8, 2024 is set for the reopening of this monument, associated throughout the world with Paris, in the same way as the Eiffel Tower.
The timetable was set by Emmanuel Macron, promising the day after the disaster in a televised speech to rebuild “the cathedral even more beautiful […] within five years.”
The president will make a site visit on Friday, at J-365, the first without “his general”, his entourage confided on Monday, in reference to the former chief of staff of the armed forces Jean-Louis Georgelin, responsible for the reconstruction, died accidentally this summer.
“We are on time, we are confident and determined, but it remains an everyday battle, as General Georgelin would have said,” Philippe Jost, senior civil servant and right-hand man of Mr. Georgelin for Notre, recently indicated on BFM Business. -Lady, who succeeded him.
Donations of 848 million euros
The spire, identical to the previous one, designed by the 19th century architecte century Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, and which had collapsed in the fire, became the marker of the progress of reconstruction. For the past week, its shape has been visible behind the metal corset where the carpenters work.
“This spire will have reached 96 meters in the sky of Paris at the end of 2023, what was seen (recently) is the rise of the summit part made of oak wood of the spire,” detailed Philippe Jost on BFM Business. After “a few steps in the days that will follow to reach 96 meters” will come “the lead cover” so “that the scaffolding, which largely hides the spire, can come down”.
After the roofers’ time will come “a less spectacular time, but essential to the use of the cathedral, that of the electrical equipment which began last summer and will keep us very busy until next summer”.
The installation of the liturgical furniture is planned “during the fall of 2024, just in time for the reopening”. This restoration, which “has an exceptional character”, was “entirely financed” by donations from France and abroad to the tune of 848 million euros ($1.2 billion), insists Philippe Jost.
In the age of social networks, the planet was able to see live the arrow break in the flames on April 15, 2019. And was able to follow the vagaries, controversies and progress of its rebirth.
Stations of the Cross
The reconstruction was a cross from the start: construction delayed in the summer of 2019 by measures against lead contamination, bad weather at the end of the year blocking the work, then put on hold inflicted by the COVID-19/crisis combination health/containment in spring 2020.
Without forgetting heated debates. The most emblematic: was it necessary to reconstruct the spire identically, the wish of the architect in charge of Notre-Dame, or to indulge in architectural audacity, the wish of the executive? The first option, favored by a majority of French people, will prevail.
Every French region, or almost, has made its contribution. In July, a dress rehearsal for the assembly of the first floor of the spire took place in Briey (Meurthe-et-Moselle), base of the workshop where the wooden parts of the frame are designed.
In Hagetmau, a small town in the Landes, a family carpentry will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year by delivering the most prestigious order in its history: 1,500 chairs intended for the cathedral. Enough to reconnect with 2,500 services and 150 concerts per year.
Four years after the fire, investigations carried out by three investigating judges continue to determine the origin of the disaster. At the end of the preliminary investigation, the accidental route was favored.