The reconstruction of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris passed a crucial stage last week as workmen successfully removed hundreds of tonnes of scaffolding fused together over the transept by last year's destructive blaze.
The 40,000 scaffolding pipes, originally installed for a planned restoration of the cathedral's spire, helped stabilise the roof and surrounding walls after the burning tower crashed through the transept and vault in April 2019.
The reconstruction crew had to shore up the walls with wooden supports so they would not fall when the scaffolding was removed. Sensors installed to detect any shaking of the walls showed they did not budge.
“It was a delicate and complex operation,” General Jean-Louis Georgelin, head of the reconstruction team, told officials during a visit to the worksite. “All indications point to a very positive diagnosis of the cathedral’s solidity.”
Experts still need to confirm the full success of the operation in coming months before the reconstruction of the transept and vault can begin.
Georgelin said he still expected Notre Dame to reopen in 2024, a goal set by the state to coincide with the Summer Olympics in Paris.
“We’ll sing a Te Deum in the cathedral,” said Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot, one of the visitors to the site still scarred by the blaze.
The main organ, which survived the fire but needed to be taken apart to clean lead dust from its 8,000 pipes, would also play again by then.
“It’s the soul of the cathedral,” the general said. “This organ made the walls sing and we will hear it again on 16 April 2024.”
Workmen have built scaffolds inside for repairs of the vault and art restorers are cleaning murals that darkened over the decades and were further blackened by the fire’s smoke. “We’re rediscovering the brilliant colours and the rich polychromy (of the 19th-century restoration). It’s spectacular,” Georgelin said.
Media reports have said bright modern stained glass windows might be installed in place of some 19th-century glass with simple designs to let in more light, but the Paris archdiocese did not confirm this.
Initial proposals for a modern spire have died down amid calls for the transept tower to be rebuilt along its former Gothic lines.
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