France races to reopen Notre-Dame cathedral by December 2024

French President Emmanuel Macron has promised that the restoration of Paris's Notre-Dame Cathedral, badly damaged by fire in 2019, will be completed in time for its planned reopening next December.

Workers operating on scaffoldings around the wooden structure of the new spire in place at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, on 2 December 2023 during reconstruction work. © AFP / JULIEN DE ROSA

"We will meet the deadline," Macron told reporters while he inspected the site on Friday, exactly one year ahead of the scheduled date.

Macron said there would be a competition for the design of six contemporary stained-glass windows for the cathedral – the only "21st-century touch" to the monument, which will otherwise be rebuilt exactly as it was.

He also announced the creation of a museum in central Paris dedicated to Notre Dame, its history, its art and "its perpetual reconstruction".

The president had initially promised to have Notre-Dame restored within five years, in time for the Paris Olympics next summer.

But after early setbacks in the rebuilding effort, he set a new deadline.

'Within timeframe'

Restoration of the Unesco-listed building, which usually welcomes some 12 million visitors each year, has hit several snags since people around the world watched in horror as its steeple crashed down in the blaze on 15 April 2019.

But its new spire has started to emerge against the French capital's skyline, and is expected to be fully completed when the city hosts the Olympic Games this summer.

Behind the scaffolding, hundreds of workers are racing against the clock to restore the rest of the cathedral in time for it to reopen its doors to the public on 8 December 2024.

"We're within the timeframe. We're confident and determined to meet the deadline but it remains a day-to-day battle," the civil servant in charge of restoration, Philippe Jost, told BFM TV last week.

New spire

The monument's new spire is identical to the previous one, designed by the 19th-century architect Eugene Viollet-Le-Duc.

Its oak structure is to reach its full height of 96 metres by the end of the year. It will then be covered in lead ornaments before the scaffolding is taken down, Jost said.

• Notre-Dame's spire to be majestically restored by end of year

The frames of the nave and the choir of the cathedral, which were also destroyed, are then due for completion, after which the reconstruction of the roof can begin.

The final stages are to include cleaning the interior – an area that covers some 42,000 square metres – and installing new furniture in the autumn.

Workers place the cross atop the newly rebuilt spire, as they stand on scaffolding, during reconstruction work, at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, on 6 December 2023. © AFP - Ludovic Marin

The work has been "entirely funded" by $848 million (€784 million) in donations from France and abroad, Jost said.

Craftsmen and women from across France have contributed to Notre-Dame's revival.

• First oaks for Notre-Dame cathedral restoration taken from French forest

Delays

Rebuilding was delayed for months by decontamination efforts, after more than 300 tonnes of lead from the roof melted in the fire.

Authorities then had to halt work several times over the first winter due to high winds, before France went into lockdown in early 2020 to fight the spread of coronavirus.

Jost took over the job of overseeing the cathedral's rebirth after the former French army chief in charge of the renovation, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, died in August during a mountain hike.

Jost had been Georgelin's right-hand man before the accident.

More than five years after the blaze, three investigating judges are still looking into what caused it.

An initial enquiry pointed to it probably being an accident, with an electrical fault or a cigarette among the theories.

(with AFP)