Paris: Five years after it was destroyed by fire, Notre Dame Cathedral has returned to its former glory months before its planned reopening, recent visitors to the monument say.
The fire at the UNESCO-listed cathedral, which welcomes 12 million visitors a year, shocked the world on April 15, 2019.
But now, he said, the inner life of Notre Dame is most vivid in his memory.
Guillaume Normand, vice-chancellor of Notre Dame, said as he inspected the restored church: “It’s amazing to see the colors gone.” “Great,” he told AFP.
The chancellor of the cathedral, Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, added that when the public returns to Notre-Dame in December, “it will have an incomparable sense of scale.”
The recovery chief said last month that work was still being done to meet the December opening date.
The campaign reached a major milestone in February, when authorities said it would be seen in time for the Paris Summer Olympics starting in July.
The spear was coated with lead, causing much controversy due to its potential toxicity.
In December, the cathedral regained its high cross and replaced the one destroyed in the fire with a new golden rooster.
President Emmanuel Macron initially promised the building would be fully restored when the Olympics opened, but that has been pushed back after several delays.
Authorities have not determined the cause of the fire, but believe it started accidentally.
A fundraiser launched in the hours after the fire raised 846 million euros ($903 million).
Except for a few weeks during the Covid crisis, the recovery has been ongoing since 2019.
Philippe Jost, president of the Paris NGO Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris, said that all the main challenges of the restoration have now been solved. According to Jost, rebuilding the center using wood from around 1,000 specially selected trees from French forests was one of the most difficult challenges.
About 250 companies and hundreds of artisans, architects and other trade professionals participated in the revival.
The fire was not disturbed, but the cathedral organ, covered in tin dust, was completely cleaned, and the 8,000 pipes needed six months of tuning before they could restore their full sound potential.
The natural light inside the church is the brightest in living memory since the cleanup, Jost said.
Among the works to be completed this summer are the restoration of the roof, floor and furniture in the nave, chancel and nave.
Starting in the fall, the cathedral’s grounds and the entrance area must be cleared for the exterior work to begin.
France recently submitted a proposal to create a modern stained glass window for Notre-Dame, expected in 2026.
