In just 100 days’ time, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is due to reopen its doors, following a five-year restoration campaign designed to erase all traces of the fire in April 2019 that almost wiped out Paris’ most famous monument.
The official reopening is scheduled for the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Conception in December 2024. The official inauguration, with the handover of Notre-Dame from the State to the Catholic Church, is scheduled for December 7th. On the same day, the organ will be awakened and a liturgical celebration will take place, including a blessing, a Magnificat or a Te Deum, followed by the Vespers.
Between now and then, even though the bulk of the work has been completed, a multitude of tasks still await the teams who have been working for months to restore the building to its former glory. More than 500 compagnons and craftsmen, specialising in the renovation of historic monuments, are working on the site.
Most of the work involved rebuilding the broken vaults and destroyed roofs. Reassembling the spire, which collapsed during the fire, was a particularly difficult task. Many symbolic elements have been returned to their rightful place, underlining the titanic task that was accomplished. For example, the mediaeval statue of the angel with the trumpet, located on the west gable of the cathedral. The statue was badly damaged by the fire—the only mediaeval statue to have been seriously damaged by fire. An identical statue was therefore sculpted, based on old photographs, and installed in its original place at the end of July.
Inside, the stones will be covered, as in mediaeval times, with a light ochre coating akin to a whitewash, which should give the church a luminous appearance, very different to that to which visitors may have been accustomed before the fire. The bells are due to be delivered in the autumn. The organ has been reinstalled but is not yet in working order.
There are still many uncertainties and concerns about the exact state of the restoration work at Notre-Dame. While it is clear that the structure—framework, roof, spire—has been remarkably restored to its former splendour, the interior renovation continues to be the subject of much debate. The liturgical equipment chosen in collaboration with the Paris diocese and widely criticised should be among the last items to be installed in the renovated church. The latest controversy concerns the crown of light, the monumental chandelier that has adorned the choir of Notre-Dame since Viollet-le-Duc. It was removed in 2014 and installed in the basilica of Saint-Denis. There was talk of it being returned to its original location at Notre-Dame, but the archbishop of Paris, Msgr. Laurent Ulrich, was opposed to this, just as he was opposed to the return of the chandeliers to the nave.
Once reopened, the cathedral is set to welcome up to 15 million visitors. For the first six months, until Pentecost 2025, access will be restricted to individual visitors and the faithful.
