French President Emmanuel Macron will honour 101 craftspeople and public servants who contributed to the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris, exactly six years after the devastating fire that endangered the cathedral.
The ceremony will take place today at the Élysée Palace from 6pm, around the same time that the fire broke out on 15 April 2019.
Senior civil servant Philippe Jost, who oversaw the conservation and restoration effort following the death of general Jean-Louis Georgelin in 2023, will be made Commander of the Legion of Honour, one of the highest decorations in France.
Architects, entrepreneurs, engineers and artisans will also be awarded with the Legion of Honour or the National Order of Merit.
Honourees include stone carvers, stained-glass windows restorers and even an organ builder, who all helped revive the splendour of the centuries-old church.
“In this list, I see rewarded those who have concretely made this restoration a success, hands-on men and women", Philippe Jost told French outlet Le Parisien.
“We owe this transformation to you”, said President Emmanuel Macron during his last visit to the cathedral before its reopening. “You were the alchemists on the construction site, and you transformed coal into art.”
Notre-Dame reopened in December 2024 after five years of work, in a grandiose ceremony attended by 1,500 guests including heads of states and royal figures.
Since then, the cathedral has welcomed about 30,000 visitors per day, who come to admire the monument, rebuilt exactly as it was before the fire.
The cathedral’s spire and bells have been replaced, and its stained-glass windows were restored to reverse the damage done by dust and smoke.
“For five years here, every single woman and every single man was needed to rebuild, every single piece of help was required, even from the other side of the world”, said President Emmanuel Macron in his speech during the reopening ceremony.
“We rediscovered what great nations can do: achieve the impossible.”
