“Our thirst is great to welcome the whole world back under the vaults of the cathedral,” declared the Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich, during a press conference on Wednesday in Paris, assuring that “15 million visitors” are expected “every year” in the building.
“It is now time to find Notre-Dame,” added its rector Olivier Ribadeau Dumas.
The reopening of the cathedral will mark the culmination of a titanic restoration project, launched after the fire of April 15, 2019 which notably ravaged the roof and frame of this masterpiece of 12th century Gothic art, which is one of the most visited monuments in Europe.
Broadcast on television, the fire, the causes of which have still not been determined, caused a wave of global emotion.
President Emmanuel Macron, who launched the audacious bet of rebuilding the cathedral in five years, will speak on the square in front of Notre-Dame on December 7 at the end of the afternoon, on the first day of festivities which will be notably marked by a live television broadcast, with “tributes” and “dance and musical moments” whose headliners have not been revealed.
The list of expected foreign heads of state has also not been made public.
Asked about the absence of Pope Francis during this reopening, Bishop Ulrich said he understood this decision. “He thinks he has more need to be elsewhere,” declared the archbishop who nevertheless hopes to receive a “message” from the sovereign pontiff.
According to Mr. Macron’s entourage, the reconstruction in five years is “a French success for which all French people are called to rejoice”, “in the continuity of the success that were the Olympic Games” of the summer 2024, going against the discourse “on French decline”.
“Ordinary life will resume”
Financed exclusively by donations, “the project of the century” will have cost some 700 million euros and mobilized around 2,000 professionals, including many craftsmen.
According to the Élysée, the French head of state, who will make a final visit to the site on November 29, will also attend on Sunday December 8 at 10:30 a.m. the first mass celebrated at Notre-Dame since the fire, the starting point of a series of religious celebrations.
This mass will be accompanied by a “fraternal buffet” bringing together the “most deprived and those who accompany them on a daily basis within the charitable organizations of the diocese of Paris”, specified Mgr Ribadeau Dumas.
From December 8, the public will also be able to once again walk around the cathedral, the framework of which has been rebuilt identically and whose walls have been completely cleaned.
The first week of reopening, the building will even be accessible from the afternoon “until 10 p.m.” (9:00 p.m. GMT), said Mgr Ribadeau-Dumas, adding that, “on December 16, ordinary life will resume “.
To manage the flow of visitors, an online reservation system the day before, the day before or the same day of the visit will be set up and a mobile application will make it possible to support the public. The cathedral can accommodate up to “3000 people at the same time”, according to the diocese.
Religious authorities took the opportunity on Wednesday to once again reject Culture Minister Rachida Dati’s proposal to charge entrance fees to visitors from outside the European Union.
“We maintain unchanged our position which is that, and reiterated several times, of the Church (…) in France on the necessary free access to churches and cathedrals. And recalled that this principle does not contradict with the concern of safeguarding religious heritage”, declared Mgr Ulrich.
