Notre Dame will be restored by the summer and will open to parishioners in early December

France’s main cathedral, its symbol, which was nearly destroyed in a fire five years ago, will be restored by this summer and will open to parishioners with a ceremonial service in early December. The authorities, restorers, and priests are sure of this. Kommersant correspondent in France reports Alexey Tarkhanov.

Guests of the Summer Olympics in Paris will see the cathedral almost the same as before the fire. Almost – because its back part and apse will remain in the forests until 2030. On the side of the island of Saint-Louis, it will take another six years to put in order the large flying buttresses and the outer walls of the ambulatory that surrounds the main altar. The builders could have moved further and done it faster if not for two insurmountable obstacles they encountered. The first was the COVID-19 epidemic, which stopped the work, the second was the discovery of contamination of the Ile de la Cité and the surrounding areas with roof lead that literally evaporated from the heat, which required a special restoration protocol and protective measures.

Formally, President Emmanuel Macron’s promise to completely restore the cathedral by 2024, made shortly after the fire, has not been broken, because the parts of the building remaining in the forests were not damaged by the fire, but simply required restoration for a long time. Now it can finally be carried out: donations received from all over the world will be enough for this – 340 thousand donors from 150 countries around the world gave a total of €846 million to save Notre Dame.

By this summer the roof will be completed and covered with lead sheets. Below them, a new advanced fire protection system for the wooden attic – the “forest”, where the fire started on April 15, 2019, will be put on duty.

During the Olympic Games and after them, until the end of autumn, work will continue on the interior of the temple. It is necessary to re-assemble the main organ, which sounded during the services (it was not damaged by the fire, but its wooden parts had to be dried due to water that got on them, and its 8 thousand pipes had to be cleaned of lead particles that had settled on them) and tune it, install seats for worshipers, return sculptures and paintings saved from the fire on the day of the fire, as well as the main relics of the cathedral to their places. Among them is the crown of thorns of Christ, which Saint Louis brought to his capital in the 13th century. It survived, as did a particle of the Life-Giving Cross and a crucifixion nail. Commissioned by the Archbishop of Paris, artist Sylvain Dubuisson designed a new reliquary to be installed near the altar.

Archbishop Roland Ulrich confirmed that the cathedral will have six new stained glass windows to replace the damaged ones. These will be works of contemporary artists, and the previously existing stained glass windows had neither drawings nor even patterns. These were simply frosted glasses installed during the restoration of Viollet-le-Duc (1840–1860s), who even then regretted that there was neither the time nor the means to make them at least colored. The five artists will be chosen in the fall by agreement between the President of France and the Archbishop of Paris. The work on creating and installing stained glass windows will take several more years.

While the upper part of the scaffolding surrounding the new spire of Notre Dame has been dismantled. Its structure itself has already been installed in place of the previous one, which collapsed on the day of the fire on April 15, 2019. The spire follows exactly the fantasy forms invented in the 19th century by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc and which have adorned the skyline of Paris since 1859. At the top of the needle, at a height of 96 meters, a new golden cockerel is installed, instead of the 19th century sculpture that was damaged by fire, but still saved and now stored in the museum.

Its dimensions—about a meter—remained the same, but its shape changed. “I couldn’t even imagine that we would make a copy,” says architect Philippe Villeneuve. He created a flying bird “with wings of fire… this is a phoenix that will remind us that the cathedral, too, has been reborn from the ashes.” Inside the gilded cockerel will still be placed particles of the relics of the patroness of the city, Saint Genovete (Genevieve) and Saint Dionysius (Saint-Denis), the first bishop of Paris, as well as one of the 70 thorns of Christ’s crown of thorns. But to them will be added a parchment containing the names of everyone – craftsmen, donors, construction companies – who participated in the restoration of the temple.

In addition, a large bouquet of branches and flowers decorated the tent over the apse. Over the course of a year, this tent was erected by 20 carpenters – without nails or screws, in the old style, with an ax – using oak beams that came from the trees of the French forests. According to tradition, on the day of completion, the carpentry team crowned the tent with branches of a tree cut down for construction. Thus, Parisians again witnessed work on the Ile de la Cité, just as their ancestors did in 1163–1345 during the construction of the cathedral and in 1844–1864 during its restoration.

The opening of the cathedral for services is scheduled for early December. On December 7, 2024, President Emmanuel Macron, on behalf of the state, will transfer the revived building to the Catholic Church – not for ownership, but for use. On the same day, the altar will be consecrated and a large organ will sound for the first time since the fire. The next day, the cathedral will celebrate one of the most important Catholic holidays, closely associated with Notre Dame – the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, as well as the beginning of the next Jubilee Year – special celebrations that, according to tradition, are celebrated every 25 years not only in Roman basilicas, but and in cathedrals throughout the Catholic world. These days, the Archbishop of Paris and Emmanuel Macron invited Pope Francis. This visit, if it takes place, will almost neatly fall on the 220th anniversary of Napoleon’s imperial coronation, which Pope Pius VII was forced to perform in Notre Dame Cathedral. The current pontiff is in no hurry to agree.