The world gets a first look inside a resplendent new Notre-Dame on Friday, as France’s President Emmanuel Macron conducts a televised tour to mark the cathedral’s imminent re-opening.
Five-and-a-half years after the devastating fire of 2019, Paris’s Gothic jewel has been rescued, renovated and refurbished – offering visitors what promises to be a breathtaking visual treat.
The president – accompanied by his wife Brigitte and Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich – are kicking off a programme of ceremonies that culminates with an official “entry” into the cathedral on 7 December and the first Catholic Mass the next day.
After being shown highlights of the building’s €700m (£582m) renovation – including the massive roof timbers that replace the medieval frame consumed in the fire – he will give a speech of thanks to around 1,300 craftsmen and women gathered in the nave.
Notre-Dame’s re-vamped interior has been kept a closely-guarded secret – with only a few images released over the years marking the progress of the renovation work.
But people who have been inside recently say the experience is awe-inspiring, the cathedral lifted by a new clarity and brightness that mark a sharp contrast with the pervading gloom of before.
“The word that will best capture the day is ‘splendour’,” said an insider of the Elysée closely involved with the restoration.
“People will discover the splendour of the cut stone, [which is] of an immaculate whiteness such as has not been seen in the cathedral maybe for centuries.”
On the evening of 15 April 2019, viewers around the world watched aghast as live pictures were broadcast of orange flames spreading along the roof of the cathedral, and then – at the peak of the conflagration – of the 19th Century spire crashing to the ground.
The cathedral – whose structure was already a cause for concern before the inferno – was undergoing external renovation at the time. Among the theories for the cause of the fire are a cigarette left by a workman, or an electrical fault.
Some 600 firefighters battled the flames for 15 hours.
At one point, it was feared that the eight bells in the north tower were at risk of falling, which would have brought the tower itself down, and possibly much of the cathedral walls.
In the end the structure was saved.
What was destroyed were the spire, the wooden roof beams (known as the “forest”), and the stone vaulting over the centre of the transept and part of the nave.
There was also much damage from falling wood and masonry, and from water from firehoses.
Thankfully what was saved made a much longer list – including all the stained-glass windows, most of the statuary and artwork, and the holy relic known as the Crown of Thorns. The organ – the second biggest in France – was badly affected by dust and smoke, but reparable.
