Paris, Notre Dame spire rebuilt. The cathedral will reopen in a year

One year before its reopening, scheduled for the end of 2024 (on December 8, 2024, exactly), Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has its spire back. In fact, work has been completed on the reconstruction of the flèche that had been erected by architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1859, and which had been completely destroyed in the fire that devastated Paris’ iconic house of worship on April 15, 2019.

Now its wooden structure, topped by the metal cross, stands once again in the Paris sky at a height of 96 m, identical to Viollet-le-Duc’s. This is a major achievement for the artisans who cut the spire in the workshop and then assembled it piece by piece in the center of the cathedral’s roof, but also for all the professionals who enabled the success of this particularly delicate yet symbolic phase: the construction management, architects, workers, scaffolders, carpenters, crane operators, and gilders.

After placing the rooster on top of the cross in the coming days, the carpenters will pass the baton to the decorators who will coat this masterpiece of framing with lead to enable it to stand the test of time.

On Friday, the day the rebuilt spire was inaugurated, French President Emmanuel Macron also visited the cathedral’s construction site. Since 2019, the President of the Republic has regularly visited the construction site to show his gratitude to all the workers on the site, but also to emphasize his attachment to this 850-year-old architectural jewel that belongs to the country’s culture, literature, architecture, and religious and secular history.

During his visit, the President of the Republic was presented with the progress of the work, the pace of which will make it possible to achieve the set goal: the return of the building to worship and visitors within five years.

Macron said that “we are on schedule,” that the construction site returns a “formidable image of hope and of a France that knows how to rebuild,” that the moment is “moving,” because “the construction site seemed impossible.” Macron visited the spire after which he went down to the cathedral to speak to the press: on this occasion he announced that a competition for contemporary artists will be held aimed at creating a work of art for Notre Dame, so that “our century will find its place among the many others that figure among the works of the cathedral.”

Image: the spire construction site. Photo: Patrick Zachmann

Paris, Notre Dame spire rebuilt. The cathedral will reopen in a year

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