International

Notre-Dame Cathedral set to reopen after 5-year restoration

After five and a half years, the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, renovated and restored, will provide visitors with an exceptional visual experience. The cathedral will reopen its doors at the beginning of December.

On Friday, the world got its first look inside the newly restored Notre-Dame Cathedral as President Macron led a televised tour to mark the upcoming reopening.

Macron, accompanied by his wife and the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, launched a ceremony program that will culminate in an official “entry” into the cathedral on December 7, followed by the first Catholic mass the next day.

President Emmanuel Macron praised the workers for their efforts in restoring the cathedral: “The fire at Notre-Dame was a national wound, and you were its remedy through will, through work, through dedication. I am deeply grateful, and France is deeply grateful,” the president said in his speech, according to BBC.

On the evening of April 15, 2019, viewers around the world watched in horror as live footage showed orange flames spreading across the cathedral's roof, and then — at the height of the conflagration — the 19th-century spire collapsing to the ground.

The cathedral — whose structure had already been a source of concern before the fire — was undergoing exterior renovations at the time.

The theories for the fire's cause include a cigarette left by a worker or an electrical short circuit. Around 600 firefighters fought the flames for 15 hours. No one was killed or injured in the fire.

Translation by Iurie Tataru

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