The fourth anniversary of the Notre Dame fire featured the optimism of the final phase, with news the cathedral would definitely open next year, President Emmanuel Macron backed a new museum to the edifice and the government was tightening security at all cathedrals around France.
Rebuilding Notre Dame’s iconic spire, which crashed through the roof during the 2019 blaze, will start this month with the positioning of the spire base at the previously broken transept.
The spire, whose statues of the 12 Apostles and four Evangelists were removed in 2019 for a renovation that may have led to the blaze, will then slowly be reconstructed over the following year.
Officials have confirmed the massive repair project was on time, so a Te Deum ceremony would take place on 16 April 2024 and the official reopening of the cathedral on 8 December 2024.
“I believe I can tell you today that we’ll make it,” said retired general Jean-Louis Georgelin, overall head of the project.
President Macron, visiting before the fire’s fourth anniversary, told 500 workers at the site to be proud of their efforts. “It’s when one sets a goal that one can move forward. You are doing that now,” he told them.
Macron promised on the night of the blaze, before even knowing the actual extent of the damage, that the cathedral would reopen in 2024. He could not know that goal would be delayed first by the need for a clean-up of lead particles from the roof and then the Covid pandemic.
It was first assumed this meant the most-visited monument in France would reopen in time for visitors to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, but that was not official. It will open afterwards and probably need work going into 2025.
During his visit, Macron backed the idea of a museum plotting its history, which would be another tourist magnet. No decisions have been made yet.
Also, Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak gave a progress report on the government’s Cathedrals Security Plan meant to protect the 88 cathedrals it owns and maintains since France’s 1905 separation of Church and State.
Begun after the Notre Dame fire, the plan requires not only fire prevention measures for the buildings but also protection of the cultural heritage like centuries-old statues and painting assembled there.
Having seen cultural heritage destroyed in Lebanon, where she was born, Abdul-Malak said she had “a rather visceral attachment to this subject”.
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