EFE / María D. Valderrama
The traumatic memory of the April 15, 2019 fire that destroyed the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral gave way two years later to the security of seeing the temple in its splendor again in 2024 before the favorable progress of work whose initial phase finally ends this summer. .
Two years after the catastrophe, the president, Emmanuel Macron, will visit the works on Thursday, accompanied by the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, in what will be his first return to the cathedral after the incident. ..
If the fire continues to be a nightmare in memory of the French, the government has turned the work into a showcase for artisans and technicians working on its reconstruction, and this will be the main reason for the leader’s visit.
“It is an opportunity to thank all those who made it possible to save the cathedral, those who are working on its reconstruction and the 340,000 donors from around the world who made these works possible,” Elisha explained today.
Macron was the one who assured the night of the fire that Notre Dame will reopen in 2024 and for now the date remains, although with conditions.
A FIRST PHASE FULL OF COMPLICATIONS
The body coordinating the works expects to bring the cathedral back to worship and sightseeing on April 15, 2024, although the work will not be completely completed.
“My concern now is to get rigorous planning to pave the way for the reopening of the cult in 2024,” said General Jean-Louis Georgelin, coordinator of the works, in a video about the restoration broadcast on social media.
This is despite the three challenges that complicated the interventions: lead contamination, the health crisis and the order issued by the prefecture, which, due to the danger, regulates the number of people who can be in the cathedral.
Reconstruction is finally beginning to be seen as the first phase of consolidation ends, which will last more than two years and which aimed to remove the burnt scaffolding from the tower and threaten the collapse of the building, evacuate the large organ, test the restoration in chapels and vault cleaning.
Before moving on, the technicians are now involved in installing the scaffolding inside to stabilize the vaults with wooden forgings and in placing a protector to prevent water from entering the cathedral.
FINALLY, RESTORATION
The second half of 2021 will mark the beginning of the restoration itself, although some work has already begun: the protocol for testing the cleaning process that will be used in the 24 chapels of the cathedral in the chapel of San Fernando and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. ., which has been successfully tested.
Also, the selection and cutting of the 1,000 oaks whose wood will be used for the reconstruction of the transept frame and the tower, destroyed in the fire, has already been made.
Very advanced reconstruction studies have made it possible to resolve the controversy over whether to carry out an intervention faithful to the original version or to add a contemporary bet.
Macron launched the reconstruction plan in July 2020, although, according to the entity responsible for the works, it will be close to that of the missing roof, but not identical.
“It will not be a simple facsimile of the missing work. True to the medieval project, it will restore the relevant structural or patrimonial repairs,” the agency said in a note.
The Socra company, responsible for the restoration of the copper statues of the tower, which were removed from the ceiling a few days before the fire and which were saved, also retouched the rooster that crowned the top of the building and fell to the ground during the fire, although without significant damage.
However, as EFE CEO Socra, Richard Boyer, explained, the rooster, the animal symbol of France, has only been retouched and has not been restored.
A possibility raised by some workers close to the works is that, in this case, the Government decides to make a tender to put a sculpture on the tower with a contemporary note.
The ancient rooster will be displayed in the cathedral as a testimony to the catastrophe.
It will not be the only testimony of the catastrophe, about which the director Jean-Jacques Annaud (“Le nom de la rose” -The name of the rose-, “Seven years in Tibet” -Seven years in Tibet-) is currently preparing a film.
The cathedral has received donations from around the world worth 833 million euros (almost $ 1 billion), an amount that may be spectacular, but may not be enough for all the work and expenses that remain to be covered. donations continue.