PICTURED: APA/AFP/BERTRAND GUAY
Image: had
The cranes can be seen from afar, often in front of the world-famous towers: a fire broke out in the roof of the cathedral on the evening of April 15, 2019, destroying large parts of the church. The images of the cloud of smoke over the center of Paris went around the world. For hours, the public feared for the famous cathedral – until the fire brigade managed to contain the flames. Since then, construction and restoration work has been in full swing.
Still “wonderful”
The church will be closed to visitors until it is completed next year, but this does not prevent many tourists from taking at least a short tour around the scaffolding-blocked landmark of the French capital. Even rain hardly deters anyone – not even the three ladies from America, who find the church “absolutely wonderful” and stop here on their way to the lively Latin Quarter. Everything around Notre-Dame is the same as always. The stalls with souvenirs are well stocked with snow globes, mugs and mini Eiffel Towers. The bistros are also open, waiters in tails serve coffee and croissants while guests follow the construction work.
Image: had
The reopening of the church to the public in 2024 is becoming increasingly likely. Even an exact date has already been mentioned: It should be December 8th, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the highest Marian feasts of Christians. In the meantime, four church windows that were destroyed by the fire in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and restored in Cologne have been reinstalled. They had been restored for ten months in the Cologne Cathedral workshop. The windows first had to be freed of lead dust in a specially set up decontamination chamber. Then the employees cleaned the panes, glued cracks in the glass, soldered cracks in the lead network, replaced the edge leads and re-cemented the outside of the window panels. “It was a very special honor for us to be able to help ensure that the cathedral in Paris can soon shine again,” says Cologne cathedral master builder Peter Füssenich. “Our impression was that the French construction management was very satisfied with the result.”
Even more beautiful than before
It is already said that anyone who visited the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris before the fire in 2019 will hardly recognize it after its restoration. “A lot more light will come in through the cleaned windows,” says Lisa Bergugnat, curator of a recently opened exhibition on the cathedral at the Paris Museum of Architecture.
The walls have also been cleaned of the soot from the fire and the dirt of the centuries. “We will discover a cathedral like we’ve never seen before,” says Philippe Jost, deputy head of the reconstruction authority. The expectations are correspondingly high. You can then expect 14 million visitors a year instead of 12 million before the fire.
Source: Nachrichten
