“We will rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral even more beautiful, and I want this to be completed within five years»announced Emmanuel Macron, the day after the fire which ravaged the monument in 2019. The bet was met: a mass will once again be celebrated at Notre-Dame de Paris on December 8, the day of the feast of the Immaculate Conception .
But before that, Emmanuel Macron is going to the construction site again this Thursday, November 29, after having gone there unofficially on November 15. A look back at the numerous visits by the President of the Republic who has increased his trips to the site since the fire of April 2019.
► April 15, 2021, first official visit
For the first time since the fire, Emmanuel Macron visited the Notre-Dame construction site on Thursday April 15, 2021, while securing the site should be completed the following summer. On this occasion, he thanks the 340,000 donors from around the world, the 500 firefighters who intervened during the tragedy and the teams involved in the reconstruction of the building.
That day, he climbed onto the high floors of Notre-Dame to observe the rope access technicians at work securing the choir vaults by masonrying the unstable stones. “The cathedral is in good hands,”he declares to The Cross.
► April 14, 2022, a model of the cock of the arrow
Three years after the fire, and between the two rounds of the presidential election, Emmanuel Macron visited the Notre-Dame reconstruction site on April 14, 2022 for more than an hour.
On this occasion, the chief architect of historical monuments Philippe Villeneuve offered the President of the Republic and Army General Jean-Louis Georgelin a model of the future rooster, the original copy of which will be mounted at the top of the spire in December 2023, at more than 96 meters.
► January 9, 2023, with the Japanese Prime Minister
This January 9, 2023, the President of the Republic is visiting not the cathedral but the surroundings of the construction site with the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, on an official visit to Paris.
From the platform of the base camp, 26 meters high, the beating heart of the construction site overlooking the illuminated apse of the cathedral, the president declares that he does not regret having set the course for a reopening at the end of 2024, announced on the evening of the fire.
► April 14, 2023, an update on the progress of restoration operations
Visiting the site on April 14, 2023, the Head of State took stock of the progress of the restoration operations. He notes that the objective of returning the building to worship and visits will be met before the end of 2024.
Greeting the apprentices, craftsmen and business leaders, he observed the restorations of the transept, the apse ambulatory, as well as the completion of the reconstruction of the stool which will support the new spire.
He also says he is in favor of committing to areflection on the creation of a museum dedicated to Notre-Dame.
► September 21, 2023, with King Charles III of England
On September 21, 2023, Emmanuel Macron went with King Charles III of England, accompanied by Queen Camilla, to the square in front of Notre-Dame, after a visit to the flower market. They meet the cathedral restoration team.
► December 8, 2023, one year before reopening
A year before the reopening of the cathedral, Emmanuel Macron once again visited the restoration site of Notre-Dame de Paris. He is accompanied by Brigitte Macron, Rima Abdul-Malak (then minister of culture), Mgr Laurent Ulrich, archbishop of Paris, and Philippe Jost, president of the public establishment responsible for the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame cathedral. Lady of Paris.
The President of the Republic notes the restoration of the spire, destroyed during the fire of April 15, 2019, and salutes the memory of General Georgelin, former president of the Establishment, who died in August.
He acceded to Mgr Ulrich's request to install contemporary stained glass windows for six windows in the south aisle of the nave, and announced the continuation of work to prefigure a Notre-Dame de Paris museum.
