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PARIS — Notre Dame Cathedral reopened to the public on Friday after more than five years of hectic, but sometimes interrupted, rebuilding work. The cathedral’s restored towering ceilings and creamy, like-new brickwork erased the gloomy memory of its tragic fire in 2019.
Live footage from French President Emmanuel Macron’s site visit revealed the interior of the famous cathedral as worshippers may have seen it centuries ago, with its expansive, open areas bathed in light on a clear, sunny winter day that accentuated the vivid hues of the stained glass windows.
The monument’s exterior is still under construction, complete with cranes and scaffolding. However, the refurbished interior, which was seen Friday for the first time before the public is permitted to return on December 8, was stunning.
The burned masses of debris that were left behind after the fire tore wide holes into the vaulted ceilings are no longer there. In order to patch and seal the holes that had exposed the inside of the cathedral to the weather, new masonry has been painstakingly put together. From the middle of one of the restored ceilings, delicate golden angels seem to soar once again above the transept.
Both the fire’s dust and the centuries’ worth of dirt have been removed from the cathedral’s brilliant, cream-colored limestone walls, making them seem like new.
Prior to the April 15, 2019, fire that forced its closure and made the monument in the center of Paris inaccessible to anybody other than artists, architects, and others hired for the rebuilding, the cathedral drew millions of worshipers and tourists each year.
Macron gazed up at the cathedral’s ceilings in awe after entering via the enormous, finely carved main doors. The archbishop of Paris, his wife Brigitte, and other people were with him.
When the fire melted the lead roofing of the cathedral, hazardous dust was initially removed using powerful vacuum cleaners.
Then, to remove the dirt from the pores, nooks, and crevices of the stones, fine coatings of latex were sprayed over the surfaces and removed a few days later. A total of 42,000 square meters of masonry, or around six soccer fields, were cleaned and decontaminated.
Despite Notre Dame’s age, stonemason Adrien Willeme, who worked on the rebuilding, said, “It feels like it was built yesterday, like it’s just been born.” “It looks truly amazing because it has been meticulously restored and cleaned.”
Additionally, several painted walls were cleaned using cleaning gels, which restored their vibrant hues after years of accumulated filth.
The roof and spire toppled like a fiery lance into the fire, and carpenters rebuilt them by hand, much like their medieval predecessors, hewed massive oak timbers. The carpenters’ workmanship is evident in the beams, where their hand axes have left dents in the timber.
In order to restore roof frameworks so complicated and thick that they are known as “the forest,” almost 2,000 oak trees were destroyed.
Macron’s visit marked the beginning of a sequence of events that led to the reopening of the Gothic masterpiece from the 12th century. The president congratulated the hundreds of workers who had gathered inside the cathedral at the conclusion of his visit for their efforts on what he referred to as the “building site of the century.”
“I hope the shock of the reopening will be just as strong as the fire’s.” However, it will be a wake-up call,” he remarked. The country was wounded by the Notre Dame fire. And you were the cure for it.
In addition to giving another speech on December 7, Macron will be present for a solemn Mass the next day to witness the dedication of the new altar.