Individual visitors will be able to enter Notre-Dame de Paris from December 8, free of charge but upon reservation. Groups of pilgrims will have to wait until February, the cathedral’s public management manager said on Thursday.
The first inauguration ceremony of Notre-Dame is scheduled for December 7 and the first mass will be celebrated the next day in this masterpiece of Gothic art which was affected by a fire on April 15, 2019.
“From December 8, the cathedral will be open to any individual visitor,” recalls Sybille Bellamy-Brown in “Paris Notre-Dame”, the weekly newspaper of the diocese of Paris, detailing the reception system.
40,000 people per day expected
Entrance will be “of course free”, except for the Treasury which, “being a museum inside the cathedral, has a special status”. However, you will need to book on a site soon to be put online: “facilitated access reservations, open up to two days in advance, will guarantee a fixed entry slot”.
There will also be at the same time “the possibility of entering without reservation” because Notre-Dame, “like any Catholic place of worship, is open to all”, adds Ms Bellamy-Brown who invites in this case to “arm yourself with patience” to enter the cathedral which expects up to 40,000 people per day.
As for the faithful wishing to participate in masses, they will be able to enter “without reservation, subject to availability”. Concretely, there will therefore be different lines depending on the situation – with or without reservation, faithful or tourist…
Groups of pilgrims will be welcomed “from February”, upon registration and “in small groups of ten people maximum”, adds Ms Bellamy-Brown.
Third phase
Finally, for visits and conferences for cultural and heritage purposes, “we will have to wait for the third phase, from Pentecost 2025” at the beginning of June. Reservations will open in March, with new slots “added gradually, three months in advance”, assures the manager.
To welcome the public, the diocese has planned a team of 500 volunteers, which it is in the process of setting up: “you just need to be available regularly, ideally three to four hours per month, throughout the year 2025,” says Bellamy-Brown.
In addition, an application will be available “as soon as the cathedral opens” in French, English and Spanish, before other languages are added in 2025.
For visually impaired people, tactile boards and 3D models will be available. Finally, a new educational file in three languages, intended for teachers, will soon be put online, explains the manager.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
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