Arthur de Laborde, edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: Ludovic MARIN / AFP
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06:17, December 8, 2023
One year to the day of the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, Emmanuel Macron is going there this Friday. The president must rule on several sensitive points in the restoration of the building, ravaged by the fire of April 15, 2019. A tribute will also be paid to Jean-Louis Georgelin.
It is a purely symbolic visit. One year to the day before the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris to worship and the public, President Emmanuel Macron will visit this Friday morning on the restoration site of the cathedral devastated by a fire on April 15, 2019. The head of the State will go as close as possible to the work to restore the spire which once again peaks at 96 meters above the ground.
On this occasion, a tribute will be paid to General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces who chaired the public establishment responsible for restoration until his accidental death last August. His name will be “engraved in the wood of the arrow” to honor his decisive role, underlines the Élysée.
Creation of a Notre-Dame museum
Emmanuel Macron will also visit the nave and choir of the cathedral. He should then announce the creation of a Notre-Dame museum, certainly on the Île de la Cité. According to his entourage, the president will also “respond to the letter from the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Ulrich, proposing to create contemporary stained glass windows for a certain number of side chapels of the nave in order to commemorate the unique period of the fire and of reconstruction.
Finally, the Élysée specifies that it has no concerns about respecting the construction timetable. Notre-Dame should therefore reopen its doors on Sunday December 8, 2024, the day of celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.