Notre Dame Cathedral in central Paris, severely damaged in a fire in 2019, will reopen to worshippers and visitors at the end of next year.
The cathedral will reopen in December 2024, in line with the goal set by President Emmanuel Macron just after the blaze which destroyed most of the roof and the building's dramatic spire in April 2019.
That reopening will come too late for the crowds expected in the French capital for the Olympic Games next summer.
But the edifice which was Europe's most popular monument before the fire, with 12 million visitors every year, is likely to rapidly reclaim its place among international tourism's trophy destinations, even without the Olympic crowds.
The man in charge of the colossal project, retired army general Jean-Louis Georgelin, has a more sober ambition.
“My job is to be ready to open this cathedral in 2024," Georgelin told the Associated Press news agency.
This will mean that "the archbishop of the capital will be able to, once again, celebrate the Catholic liturgy in his cathedral.
'On the right path'
"We will do it," Georgelin says. "We are fighting every day to achieve that and we are on the right path.”
The projected reopening to worshippers and tourists will not mean the end of restoration efforts.
Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak told the Associated Press that "there will still be some renovation work still going on in 2025.”
The project employs nearly 1,000 people, either on-site or in specialised workshops around France.
Every effort is being made to re-build in harmony with the original 13th century structure.
Philippe Jost, managing director of the government agency overseeing the reconstruction, points out that the result “will be faithful to the original architecture" both because “we are sticking to the vanished shapes of the cathedral” and because ”we are also using the materials and construction methods” of medieval times.
“We don’t do concrete vaults that look like stone, we do stone vaults that we are rebuilding as they were built in the Middle Ages,” Jost says.
The wooden roof framework, for example, will be replaced with oak beams identical to those destroyed in the blaze
Spotlight on the restoration
Meanwhile, a special exhibition near the cathedral will allow visitors, including those coming for the Olympics, “to live what could be the experience of visiting Notre-Dame in a brand new way,” Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak said.
Alongside the free exhibition which highlights ongoing operations on the site and the expertise and skills of workers from sculptors to stained-glass specialists, it also features some remains from the fire and works of art from the cathedral.
A separate virtual reality show will allow paying visitors to dive into the history of the cathedral. "That will help also tourism in Paris,” the minister added.
