A year before the planned reopening of the cathedral ravaged by a fire in 2019, Emmanuel Macron climbed to the top of the freshly rebuilt spire of Notre-Dame de Paris on Friday and assured that the reconstruction deadlines were met.
A competition to create contemporary stained glass windows
Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday the launch of a competition for the creation of “six contemporary stained glass windows” which will bear “the mark of the 21st century” in the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, also rebuilt identically after the fire which ravaged it in 2019.
In a letter sent this week, Mgr Laurent Ulrich, Archbishop of Paris, confirmed his “wish” to see the State order “a series of six stained glass windows for the south side chapels of the nave”. “I fully subscribe to it,” Emmanuel Macron responded on Friday, stressing that it would be a question of carrying “the brand of the 21st century” in this jewel of Gothic art.
“It is with my full agreement that we are going to launch a competition which will allow contemporary artists to submit, on the basis of an order that will be placed, a figurative work,” he added. “The century which is ours will have its place among several others which appear in the works of this cathedral.”
Opening of a Notre-Dame de Paris museum at the Hôtel-Dieu
The Head of State also announced that the old stained glass windows “which will be removed” and “which date from Viollet-le-Duc”, as well as the rooster which fell on April 15, 2019 in the collapse of the spire, ” will take place in a museum of the work of Notre-Dame de Paris” which will see the light of day “in the premises of the Hôtel-Dieu” on the Île de la Cité. It will be “at the same time a history museum, an art museum, a museum which will also describe the permanent construction site of Notre-Dame de Paris”.
“We meet deadlines”
“We are meeting the deadlines” with a view to reopening to worship and the public in exactly one year, on December 8, 2024, he welcomed. “It is a formidable image of hope and of a France that knows how to rebuild,” he added to the press, in the nave of the religious building. He spoke of “a moment that is both important and moving” which testifies to the “extraordinary progress” of “this project which seemed impossible”.
On April 15, 2019, a spectacular fire destroyed the cathedral, whose spire, designed by the 19th century architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, collapsed before the eyes of Parisians and tourists. Images of the flames were broadcast live, sparking global emotion.
The ambitious timetable for a five-year reconstruction has so far been met. And on D-365, its inspection on Friday begins the countdown to the reopening of Notre-Dame to worship and the public, scheduled for December 8, 2024. Before the disaster, it attracted 12 million visitors on average each year.