President Macron inspects the results of the 700-million-euro restoration, including the 19th-century Gothic spire returned to its former glory.
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has offered the world a peek of its restored interior, five years after it was ravaged by a fire.
French President Emmanuel Macron inspected the renovation work on Friday, and live images of the landmark’s stained-glass windows, creamy stonework, timber-framed roof and soaring ceilings were broadcast live on television a week before its official reopening on December 7.
After the 2019 fire, which reduced much of the 12th-century Gothic masterpiece to charred debris and toppled the spire, Macron set the ambitious goal to rebuild it within five years and make it “even more beautiful” than before.
The ensuing 700-million-euro ($739m) restoration project was funded by donations from 150 countries and carried out by about 2,000 people participating in the painstaking work, including architects, scaffolders, roofers, bell makers, masons and organ builders.
The 19th-century Gothic spire has since been resurrected with an exact copy of the original.
Notre-Dame, which welcomed 12 million visitors in 2017, expects to receive an even higher figure of “14 to 15 million” after the reopening, according to church authorities.
French ministers had floated the idea of charging tourists an entrance fee to the site, but the Catholic Church said it was important to maintain the principle of free admission.
Unseen to visitors is a discreet system of pipes ready to release millions of water droplets in case of any future fires.
World leaders are expected to join next week’s reopening, but the guest list has yet to be revealed.
“Even more beautiful than before, in the renewed radiance of the blonde stones and the colour of the chapels,” Macron said in a statement.
The “building site of the century” was a “challenge that many considered insane”, the president said of one of the French capital’s most visited and beloved monuments.
To the surprise of many, Pope Francis announced in September that he would not be attending the reopening.
In recent years, the French Catholic church has been rocked by sexual abuse allegations against clerics, including the monk known as Abbe Pierre, a household name for his aid to the destitute.
“We are very eager to welcome the whole world under the roof of our cathedral,” Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich said in a message on the cathedral’s website, expressing the church’s gratitude to all those who helped save it.
“On the night of April 15, hundreds of thousands of people committed themselves to what then seemed an impossible bet: to restore the cathedral and give it back its splendour within the unprecedented deadline of five years.”
More than five years on, the investigation into what caused the fire is ongoing with initial findings backing an accidental cause such as a short circuit, a welder’s torch or a cigarette.
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