Emmanuel Macron announced, this Friday, December 8, that he was inviting Pope Francis to attend the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris, scheduled in exactly one year, on December 8, 2024. “I hope so, in any case we “We will invite him,” replied the head of state during an interview on France 2, when he was questioned about the possible presence of the pope. “The invitation will be extended. But it is not up to me to respond on his behalf,” he added.
A little earlier, during his visit to the Notre-Dame de Paris construction site, Emmanuel Macron announced that contemporary stained glass windows would be created to bring “the mark of the 21st century” to the cathedral.
In a letter sent this week, Mgr Laurent Ulrich, Archbishop of Paris, confirmed his “wish” to see the State order “a series of six stained glass windows for the south side chapels of the nave”. “I fully subscribe to it,” replied Emmanuel Macron. “It is with my full agreement that we are going to launch a competition which will allow contemporary artists to submit, on the basis of an order that will be placed, a figurative work,” he added.
According to him, “the century which is ours will have its place among several others which appear in the works of this cathedral”, a jewel of Gothic art which he has also decided to have reconstructed “identically” .
A museum will be opened at the Hôtel-Dieu
The Head of State also announced that the old stained glass windows, “which will be removed” and “which date from Viollet-le-Duc”, as well as the rooster which fell on April 15, 2019 in the collapse of the spire, “will take place in a museum of the work of Notre-Dame de Paris” which will see the light of day “in the premises of the Hôtel-Dieu”, nearby on the Île de la Cité.
The Head of State went to the construction site to start the countdown on D-365 for the reopening of Notre-Dame to worship and the public, scheduled for December 8, 2024. And in particular at the top of the new spire which, at an altitude of 96 meters, has reappeared in recent days under the scaffolding and has been topped by its cross since Wednesday, while awaiting its rooster which must soon be blessed according to Catholic tradition.
“We are meeting the deadlines,” welcomed the President of the Republic, who had set an ambitious timetable for reconstruction in five years. “It’s a fantastic image of hope and of a France that knows how to rebuild,” he added to the press. He spoke of “a moment that is both important and moving” which testifies to the “extraordinary progress” of “this project which seemed impossible”.
On April 15, 2019, a spectacular fire destroyed the cathedral, whose spire, designed by the 19th century architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, collapsed before the eyes of Parisians and tourists. Images of the flames were broadcast live, sparking global emotion.
Before the disaster, it attracted 12 million visitors on average each year. Emmanuel Macron symbolically gave the last stroke of the chisel to the inscription, in the wood of the arrow, of the name of “his general”, Jean-Louis Georgelin, whom he had initially charged with carrying out this titanic project and who died last summer.