“We had never seen such a construction site. You all participated in the construction site of the century, a training site, a model construction site.“, declared Emmanuel Macron, within the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral. During a visit to the religious building on November 29, 2024, his seventh since the fire, the President of the Republic wished to pay tribute to all those involved in this extraordinary project.
More than five years after the dramatic fire that hit the cathedral on April 15, 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris will once again welcome the public. After years of work to restore this heritage jewel, a grand opening ceremony, chaired by the Archbishop of Paris, will be organized on December 7 and 8, 2024. Ahead of this celebration, the Head of State strolled through the cathedral and visited the framework.
“You have achieved what we thought was impossible”
Emmanuel Macron thanked the donors, patrons, firefighters and the 250 companies that participated in this project. “It is an immense emotion to find ourselves in our cathedral, in the very place where the nave sheltered a field of ruins five years ago. We all remember the lead falling, this real tragedy in the open air. The planet was turned upside down that day. The shock of reopening will be as strong as the fire, but it will be a shock of hope“, declared Emmanuel Macron.
“In April 2019, we decided it would take five years [de reconstruire Notre-Dame]. We were told a lot, at the beginning, that this would not be possible, that it was crazy, arbitrary, that we were going to do it wrong. […] You achieved what we thought was impossible“, he stressed.
To the attention of Rebuilding Notre-Dame, Emmanuel Macron assured that he “could be proud of a unique project management“. “There is extraordinary project management, with our architects from Historical Monuments, and Philippe Villeneuve“, he added. He also paid tribute to the other speakers, design offices, architects, engineers, laboratories.” You have done remarkable work.”
A message to companions
“The Notre-Dame blaze was a national wound and you were its remedy through will, work and commitment. […] You were the antidote to despondency, by the energy with which you tackled the site, by the enthusiasm with which you responded to this challenge“, he said, addressing all the companions and companies mobilized during this project.
“You made this challenge a reality. You have taken up a chain of times that preceded you by more than eight centuries, that of the companions of the Middle Ages, with their passion for beauty, for things well done, for their thirst for effort and for surpassing themselves. […] You made us discover that this cathedral was already a treasure of women and men who had succeeded one another there. You signed up for this procession. […] Thanks to everyone who brought the forest back to life“, he added, referring to the companions dedicated to the reconstruction of the framework. More than 2,000 French oaks were used to recreate it.
“To foresters, sawyers, carpenters and trimmers, who have rediscovered skills that the 20th century had sometimes lost. Like this very ancient art of manual squaring, by recreating, with edgers, tools which are perfections of human ingenuity. […] The work that has been done there is incredible.”
Stonemasons, sculptors and masons”have rendered the blondness of this stone that deep down, our eyes had never seen, and the expressiveness of its gargoyles“Painting restorers”bring to life the extraordinary colors of Viollet-le-Duc“and the master glassmakers have, “preserved the exceptional brilliance of the stained glass windows“.
Next meeting on December 7
This trip by the president marks the end of the restoration project, which brought together more than 2,000 companions. In total, 843 million euros in donations were collected for this restoration which cost 700 million euros. The remaining amount will be used to finance the third phase of restoration, those of the facades and the covering of the sacristy and the choir. This work, imagined before the fire, will be carried out in 2025.
Emmanuel Macron will give a speech in front of the building on December 7, during the reopening ceremony, organized in three stages (republican, religious and artistic). On the 8th, a first mass will be celebrated in the morning, in the presence of 150 French and foreign bishops and the President of the Republic.
A reservation system will be set up so that visitors can discover the restored cathedral for free, from December, according to the diocese of Paris. The reopening of the site should attract the first year “14 to 15 million” of visitors, according to the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati.
