Emmanuel Macron will pay tribute on Friday, on the Notre-Dame de Paris construction site, to Jean-Louis Georgelin who died this summer, whose name will be “engraved in the wood of the spire”, said the Elysée on Wednesday, which must also be decide on a request to create new stained glass windows.
Friday, during a visit planned one year before the reopening for worship and visits of this masterpiece of Gothic art, the president “will be able to approach the spire” and “on this occasion , he will pay special tribute to General Georgelin”, who supervised the construction site since the fire which affected the monument on April 15, 2019, until his death last summer, it was indicated at the Elysée.
“The name of the general will be engraved in the wood of the arrow to mark the decisive role that this great servant of the State will have had in the management of the project,” it was added.
Restoration work completed “at the end of the decade”
Emmanuel Macron “will also be able to respond to the letter he received from Monseigneur Urich, Archbishop of Paris, who proposed to him to create contemporary stained glass windows for a certain number of side chapels of the nave, in order to commemorate in the body itself of the cathedral this very unique period which was that of the fire and the reconstruction”, according to this same source.
In this letter, which AFP obtained, Mgr Ulrich states: “I hope that one day soon we will be able to see some new stained glass windows (…) in one or another chapel. No to tell the fire”, but saying “this is what our time, and after this ordeal, wants to offer as a contribution to the history of this church and of Paris”.
After phase 1 (safety after the fire) and phase 2 (restoration itself), phase 3 – which will include restoration work scheduled before the fire – should be “completed” at the end of the decade, 2029 or 2030″, specified the Elysée.