EFE / María D. Valderrama
The traumatic memory of the fire of April 15, 2019, which destroyed the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral, gave way two years later to the certainty that the temple would be seen again in its splendor in 2024 before the favorable progress of the works of which the initial phase finally ends this summer.
Two years after the disaster, the president, Emmanuel Macron, will visit the works this Thursday along with 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 remains a nightmare in the memory of the French, the government has turned the works into a showcase for the craftsmen and technicians working on the reconstruction, and that 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,” the Elysee explained today.
It was Macron who assured the night of the fire that Notre Dame would reopen in 2024 and for now the date will stand, albeit under conditions.
A FIRST STAGE FULL OF COMPLICATIONS
The agency coordinating the works expects to return the cathedral for worship and tourist visits on April 15, 2024, although the work will not be completely finished.
“Now it is my concern to get rigorous planning to pave our way for the reopening for worship in 2024,” said General Jean-Louis Georgelin, coordinator of the works, in a video about the restoration posted on social networks. was broadcast.
This is despite the three challenges that have made the interventions difficult: lead contamination, the health crisis and the prefecture’s order that, because of the danger, regulates the number of people who may be in the cathedral.
The reconstruction is finally beginning to glimpse as the first phase of consolidation is coming to an end, which will have lasted more than two years and which was aimed at removing the burnt scaffolding from the spire and threatening to collapse, evacuating it. large organ, the test restoration in the chapels and cleaning of the vaults.
Before proceeding, the technicians are now involved in installing the scaffolding inside to stabilize the vaults with timber formwork and in placing a protector to prevent water from entering the cathedral.
FINALLY THE RESTORATION
The second semester of 2021 marks the beginning of the restoration itself, although some work has already begun: the protocol to test 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.
The selection and cutting of the 1,000 oaks whose wood will be used to rebuild the framework of the transept and spire that were destroyed by the fire has also been done.
The highly advanced reconstruction studies have made it possible to settle the controversy about whether or not to perform an intervention that is faithful to the original version or to add a contemporary bet.
Macron gave the green light for the reconstruction plan in July 2020, although it will be close to that of the missing roof, but not identical, according to the entity responsible for the works.
“It will not be a simple facsimile of the missing work. Faithful to medieval design, it will restore the relevant repairs in the structural or patrimonial plane,” the agency said in a note.
The Socra company, responsible for the restoration of the spire’s copper statues, which had been removed from the ceiling and rescued days before the fire, also retouched the rooster that crowned the top of the structure that fell to the ground during the fire, although without significant damage.
However, as Socra CEO Richard Boyer explained to EFE, the rooster, France’s animal symbol, has only been retouched and not restored.
One possibility that some workers have raised close to the works is that in this case the government decides to issue a tender to place a sculpture on the spire with a contemporary touch.
The old rooster will be displayed in the cathedral as a testimony to the catastrophe.
It will not be the only testimony to the catastrophe that film director Jean-Jacques Annaud (“Le nom de la rose” -The name of the rose-, “Seven Years in Tibet” -Seven years in Tibet-) is currently working on preparing a movie.
The cathedral has received donations from around the world amounting to $ 833 million (nearly $ 1 billion), an amount that may be spectacular, but may not be enough to cover the total of the works and expenses that remain to be covered. donations continue.