With pageantry and dignitaries, France unveils a reborn Notre Dame

PARIS — Five years after a fire that devoured its roof and nearly collapsed its walls, a renovated Notre Dame Cathedral reopened Saturday, its centuries-old bell clanging, its 8,000-pipe organ first groaning — and then roaring — back to life.

It was an emotional rebirth for one of the world’s most recognized monuments, a Gothic medieval masterpiece and cornerstone of European culture and faith.

“Brothers and sisters, let us enter now into Notre Dame,” Laurent Ulrich, the archbishop of Paris, said before tapping three times on the cathedral doors with the point of his staff, made with a beam of the roof that survived the fire.

As he pushed open the door, the sounds of brass instruments and the melodic voices of dozens of children singing in the cathedral choir filled the nave.

The ceremony restored the cathedral in its full glory to the Parisian skyline and delivered a much-needed morale boost for France at a time of political dysfunction, a stagnating economy and a bitter budget standoff that this past week resulted in the toppling of the center-right government.

With the successful reopening of Notre Dame, on a schedule that many had derided as too ambitious, France showed off its ability to execute major projects, as it did with the Summer Olympics, and exhibited its artistic and artisanal expertise.

“The greatness of this cathedral is inseparable from everyone,” President Emmanuel Macron said in brief remarks. The rapid renovation had set France on a “course of hope,” he said. Five years of repairs were indeed a historical blip for a cathedral begun in 1163 and that took 182 years to complete.

As the French president spoke, bright spotlights cut into the rain and fog of a chilly December night in Paris.

It was also a time for diplomacy for Macron and for France. President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy both flew to Paris for the event, and Macron assembled the two men at the Élysée Palace before the ceremony, an opportunity for Zelenskyy to press the case for more aid to Ukraine to the skeptical president-elect.

Others in attendance included former French presidents and an assortment of dignitaries, European royalty and billionaire technology mogul Elon Musk.

Trump sat in the front row, between Macron and his wife, Brigitte. On her other side was Jill Biden, the first lady.

Macron, in his remarks, declared the soaring limestone structure to be “even more beautiful than before.” Notre Dame, he said, was being returned “to Catholics, to Parisians, to France and to the whole world.”

The reopening caps an enormous effort to restore the cathedral. French authorities marshaled more than 840 million euros (nearly $900 million) from about 340,000 donors to fund the effort. More than 2,000 oak trees were donated from private and public forests.

The fire damage has been almost entirely repaired — the vaults are whole, the 19th-century spire and the wooden attic are back and the interior limestone walls dazzlingly bright and clean.

The craftsmen who toiled on the project have been memorialized in the restoration. A year ago, a new spire was unveiled at the cathedral complete with a gilded copper figure that contains, in addition to relics of saints, a scroll with the names of the people who took part in the rebuilding. The copper figure is a cross between a rooster and a phoenix, symbol of the cathedral’s rebirth.

Guests at the ceremony Saturday also honored the firefighters who had rushed directly into the flames on the evening of April 15, 2019. The fire tore through the cathedral’s wood and lead roofing, destroyed the iconic spire and seriously endangered the structure’s stability.

At the ceremony, thunderous applause greeted a group of firefighters who appeared at the front of the cathedral in their fluorescent firefighting gear.

The cathedral will celebrate its first Mass on Sunday to consecrate the altar, which will receive the relics of several saints. Macron and about 170 bishops from France and elsewhere were expected to attend.

A Mass for the general public was to be offered later Sunday, and visitors will be able to enter Notre Dame for the first time since the fire.

The work on the cathedral is not yet completed. Some scaffolding will remain. The lead covering of the base of the spire still needs to be finished. And it will take years more to repair the outer wear and tear on the cathedral that had nothing to do with the fire. The area around the cathedral is also being redesigned to stay cooler during heat waves and to improve the flow of visitors.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2024 The New York Times Company