Five years after a devastating fire, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris will reopen to the public on December 7 with a globally broadcast ceremony followed by a string of Masses, concerts and other events, officials announced Wednesday.
“We are going to recover the focal point of our life as a church,” Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris said at a news conference.
Last week, Notre-Dame’s bells rang together for the first time since the fire in April 2019.
France’s Catholics are also “very eager to welcome back the whole world under the cathedral’s vaults,” he added. Once reopened, about 14 million to 15 million yearly visitors are expected at Notre-Dame, a Gothic medieval masterpiece that was among the world’s most visited monuments before the fire shut it down.
Ulrich will strike the doors of the cathedral with his staff and officially reopen them during a religious ceremony attended by Catholic dignitaries, foreign officials and donors who contributed to the renovation.
President Emmanuel Macron of France, who had vowed to reopen the landmark within five years of the fire, is expected to give a short speech in front of the cathedral before the ceremony, which will be followed by a concert.
The cathedral will celebrate its first Mass on Dec. 8 to consecrate the altar, which will receive the relics of several saints. Macron and about 170 bishops from France and elsewhere are expected to attend.
Officials said it was too early to provide a guest list for the ceremonies, but Pope Francis has said that he would not attend.
In all, about 843 million euros (nearly $900 million) from about 340,000 donors has poured in since the fire. The bulk has been used for the restoration thus far, and about 143 million euros will be used to continue work on the cathedral’s exterior, including the sacristy and the flying buttresses, which could take another three years.
“At the time of the fire, it was not in great shape,” Philippe Jost, the head of the cathedral’s reconstruction task force, said at Wednesday’s news conference. “You’ll have to get used to seeing the cathedral with scaffolding.”
An investigation continues into the cause of the April 15, 2019, blaze, but a definitive cause may never be determined. The leading theories among investigators are that it was sparked by an electrical short-circuit or a discarded cigarette.
The New York Times Services