OUR LADY. The President of the Republic visited the site of Notre-Dame de Paris 4 years after the fire. This visit confirmed the reconstruction of the spire in 2023 and the reopening of the religious building in 2024.
[Mis à jour le 14 avril 2023 à 17h38] Emmanuel Macron visited the site of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral on Friday April 14, on the eve of the fourth anniversary of its fire, to take “an update on the progress of restoration operations”. While he had set himself the challenge of rebuilding the monument ravaged by flames in five years, this visit made it possible to confirm the smooth running of the work and its completion at the end of 2024. “It’s been four years that we are leading this fight for restoration in five years and I believe I can tell you today that we are really going to get there”, said General Jean-Louis Georgelin, president of the public establishment in charge of conservation and the restoration of the cathedral, to the President of the Republic.
The Head of State had to monitor the completion of the reconstruction of the 80-ton stool, which will support the new spire, rebuilt identically, no longer by the 19th century architect Viollet-Le-Duc but by Philippe Villeneuve. With a dimension of 15 meters long by 13 meters wide by 6 meters high, made up of 110 pieces, the stool determines the stability of the arrow.
The spire, which will culminate at 96 meters in height, will be rebuilt with the original materials: oak wood for the structure and lead for the cover and ornaments. The installation of the spire should begin at the end of April and be completed at the end of 2023. We will see the scaffolding which will surround the spire gradually rise into the sky of Paris, as and as it is built. Eventually, the scaffolding, weighing 600 tons, will culminate at 100 meters.
The extraordinary restoration project of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral was financed thanks to the generosity of 340,000 donors from 150 countries, who raised 846 million euros in donations. In accordance with the restoration project, Notre-Dame de Paris will regain its architecture that disappeared in the fire: its spire, its framework and its vaults, respecting its original materials thanks to the know-how of numerous artistic professions mobilized in Paris and throughout the territory.
Will the cathedral of Notre-Dame be rebuilt identically?
For a time, the reconstruction of Notre-Dame and in particular of its spire, caused debate between those in favor of modernization and those who wanted it to be reconstructed identically. Not far from a millennium after the beginning of the construction of the famous cathedral, the general principle is to rebuild identically, while offering “a new youth” to the building.
After considering a more contemporary version, this is indeed the decision taken by President Macron in the summer of 2020, after consultation with the National Heritage and Architecture Commission (CNPA), bringing together elected officials, experts and site architects. Among the durable materials that will be used are lead for the roof and oak wood for the frame. “We have chosen continuity. We want to give back to the French, to the whole world, the cathedral they love”, justified on this point Jean-Louis Georgelin, appointed head of the establishment responsible for the reconstruction.
Several experts have expressed doubts about the feasibility of such a project, believing that to meet the five-year deadline announced by Emmanuel Macron, it was impossible to restore the wooden frame to an identical one. Only the use of modern materials, such as steel or concrete, would make it possible to meet the delivery time announced according to them.
IN IMAGES, IN PICTURES. The architectural possibilities offered by the monumental construction site of the cathedral have inspired the world’s greatest masters in the field, who have submitted various projects, more or less modern, close to the original or completely futuristic.
When is the reopening of Notre-Dame set?
The reopening of Notre-Dame is scheduled for December 2024. “In 2024, you will see in the sky of Paris shine the arrow which will no longer be the arrow of Viollet-Le-Duc but of Philippe Villeneuve [l’architecte en charge de la reconstruction – NDMLR] !” declared General Jean-Louis Georgelin at the start of the construction site. A Te Deum was announced on April 15, 2024 within the cathedral even if the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot and General Jean-Louis Georgelin himself have warned that the work will undoubtedly continue well after the reopening.
The forecourt of Notre-Dame could not be reopened until the spring of 2020, a reopening delayed both because of lead pollution and then questions of confinement.
How is the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris progressing?
After the site securing phase, the Notre-Dame construction site progressed with difficulty. For months, it will have been necessary to evacuate the debris from the frame piece by piece, then dismantle the gigantic scaffolding which had been put in place for the work in progress on the roof at the time of the fire. All with the disruptions caused by persistent lead pollution and the coronavirus epidemic, requiring drastic measures of distancing and hygiene. The second phase, devoted to the study of the inventory, involving the diagnosis and the true cost of the restoration, followed, which also took months.
The reconstruction phase itself could only begin at the beginning of 2022. A thousand oak trees from France were donated, mostly from five regions (Burgundy, Center Val de Loire, Grand Est, Pays de la Loire, Normandy) for the main framework. Half of them come from public forests, half from nearly 150 private forests. After cutting, drying on site, “skidding” (transfer to the edge of the roads) and debitage, they had to be transported to around twenty sawmills. Towards the beginning of 2023, they were transported to the workshops of the carpenters, who follow the plans of Viollet-Le-Duc for an identical reconstruction. Oaks have also been offered by foreign donors. The medieval frameworks of the nave and the choir are redone with thousands of other trees, younger this time.
In order to return the cathedral to worship and visitation in December 2024, three types of work are currently being carried out:
- cleaning and restoration of the interior of the building
- the restoration of masonry and collapsed vaults
- work to restore the missing spire and frameworks both on the Ile de la Cité and in the workshop.
What will the interior of Notre-Dame de Paris look like?
Heritage experts gave the green light to the future interior redevelopment of Notre-Dame de Paris on December 9, 2021 only. A favorable opinion with two reservations: the place of statues that they wish to keep in the chapels and the pews “for which the clergy must review their copy”, specified the Ministry of Culture to AFP. The project called for benches on wheels, equipped with luminaries, which the experts would like to judge on the basis of prototypes. While the choir was to be transformed into a prayer space, the experts also expressed their veto, “fearing that the floor, which dates from the 18th century, will be damaged by the passage of the faithful and tourists”.
The Ministry of Culture, for its part, reaffirmed that contemporary works should take their place alongside the original paintings, but “no name of artists has yet been decided”. A proposal highly criticized by a hundred personalities, including the host Stéphane Bern or the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, in a forum published in Le Figaro and the Tribune de l’Art at the end of 2021.
Who is Philippe Villeneuve, the architect supervising the restoration of Notre-Dame?
Philippe Villeneuve is a Knight of Arts and Letters, and has directed the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral since 2013, when he succeeded Benjamin Mouton. At the time of the fire, he was in charge of the work on the Viollet-le-Duc spire, which completely disappeared in the flames. Since then, the Minister of Culture has renewed his confidence in him, and he is now leading the work to secure the building, before the actual restoration work can begin.
Previously, Philippe Villeneuve distinguished himself in the restoration of several museums, but above all for his work at the Château de Chambord, where he was responsible for the gardens and the restoration of the keep, as well as the construction of the reception hall.
The fire of Notre-Dame de Paris in pictures
On Monday April 15, 2019, shortly before 7 p.m., a fire broke out on the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris. One of the biggest disasters of recent years in the capital begins. For nearly 15 hours, the firefighters will take enormous risks to try to save the building, which is close to collapsing. They will only begin to bring the fire under control and stabilize the situation in the middle of the night.
From the start of the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris, images of the tragedy circulated en masse on social networks, before news agencies took over. All evening, photos of the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris showed huge flames escaping from the roof of the building, in a thick cloud of smoke. The collapse of the spire of Notre-Dame on itself was another episode rich in dramatic images. On Tuesday, new images were unveiled by AFP, photos taken inside the cathedral, on which we see the extent of the damage in the nave.
What caused the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris?
The exact causes of the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris on Monday April 15, 2019 are unknown at this stage, but the monument was undergoing restoration work when the fire broke out. An investigation was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office to determine the circumstances of the start of the fire, and entrusted to the judicial police. The investigation phase in the rubble is over. A long phase of analysis of the samples must still last several months to try to identify the origin of the disaster. Only one thing is certain: it is not a criminal act, the police having not found any criminal origin at the start of the fire.
According to the first elements of the investigation, revealed by Le Parisien, the police identified that the fire had started at the base of the large arrow, around 6:50 p.m. They suspect a fault in the electrical installation and a short circuit, the causes of which remain to be established. According to the newspaper, the investigators are wondering about the installation of an elevator on the site, but the hypothesis of a fire starting on a hot spot linked to a weld has not been ruled out.