More than just a beautiful house of worship, Notre Dame is a French national treasure. So it was fitting that President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation the day after the fire that significantly damaged the cathedral on April 15, 2019.
He promised that in just five years, the Gothic cathedral would be renovated and rebuilt “more beautiful than before.”
Plenty of money poured into what was declared a national project, and many bureaucratic hurdles were cleared. As a result, work took place right on schedule — at least officially.
Notre Dame is set to reopen with a festive ceremony on December 8. President Macron is scheduled to give a speech on the forecourt in the presence of numerous heads of state and government. The following day, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich will celebrate mass for the first time since the fire; the new altar will also be consecrated.
Notre Dame by the numbers
Those who visited Notre Dame before the fire will be amazed to see that the cathedral’s walls have been cleaned of centuries-old soot and dirt. More light now shines through the newly cleaned windows, making the fresh colors and gold leaf of the murals sparkle.
Notre Dame’s 2,300 statues and 8,000 organ pipes have also been recently cleaned, and 1,500 new chairs were installed, but not without first being blessed.
The entire undertaking saw 2,000 tons of scaffolding erected and then dismantled again, plus the involvement of almost 250 companies and studios.
The cathedral, built between 1163 and 1345, has once again become “the construction site of the century,” according to French media.
Around €840 million ($880 million) was raised to fund the project. Some €700 million covered the construction costs while the remainder will go towards restoration of the intact apse and buttresses over the next three years — work that would have been necessary even without the fire damage
‘The miracle of Notre Dame’
Five years ago, a fire broke out in the attic under the cathedral’s roof. More than 400 firefighters worked for four hours until they were able to confine the blaze to the wooden roof structure.
The extent of the destruction was not as great as initially feared. Although the wooden spire collapsed, the Gothic statue of the Virgin Mary that was next to it remained intact.
“The miracle of Notre Dame” is what German cathedral expert Barbara Schock-Werner called it in a DW interview at the time.
“There was a great danger that the entire church would collapse,” she now recalls. “All it would have taken was one storm, and the damage would have been immense.”
Yet another, more serious problem loomed. Sheets fell from the lead roof of Notre Dame, and other pieces melted. Toxic lead dust covered everything, which made construction more difficult.
“Those were pretty big challenges,” says Schock-Werner, who is a former master builder of the Cologne Cathedral.
Too early to reopen?
Schock-Werner coordinated aid from Germany together with the then-Franco-German cultural representative, Armin Laschet.
Workers removed lead dust from four clerestory windows in the basilica and repaired them in the Cologne Cathedral workshop.
Meanwhile, the clappers for the bells were supplied by a family business in Anzenkirchen, Bavaria.
While Schock-Werner admires the speedy restoration of Notre Dame, she warns that the combination of time and money pressures also has its downside.
“The building is actually still too damp,” she says. “You can only hope that the wall plaster will hold in the interior.”
She also believes the oak timber used for the roof needed more time to dry. “Normally you leave oak until it’s dry and only then do you use it. But that was of course due to time pressure. And you can only hope that it goes well,” Schock-Werner says.
It is unclear how Paris intends to cope with the expected masses of visitors to Notre Dame.
France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati wants to charge an admission fee, but the Catholic Church rejects that idea. The city is also considering turning the underground car park in front of the cathedral into a visitor center.
But none of these remaining questions have stopped Macron, who is struggling domestically in terms of popularity, from hailing the reconstruction of Notre Dame as a bona fide “French success story.”
This article was originally written in German.
