Restored Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris unveiled after 2019 fire | Arts and Culture News

President Macron inspects the results of the 700 million euro restoration, including the 19th century Gothic spire that has returned to its former glory.

Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has given the world a glimpse of its renovated interior, five years after it was destroyed by fire.

French President Emmanuel Macron inspected the renovation work on Friday, and live footage of the historic stained-glass windows, cream stonework, timber-framed roof and high ceiling was broadcast live on television a week before it officially reopened on December 7.

After the 2019 fire, which reduced much of the 12th-century Gothic art to burnt rubble and toppled the storm, Macron set himself the goal of rebuilding it within five years and making it “more beautiful” than before.

The subsequent 700-million-euro ($739m) restoration project was funded by donations from 150 countries and carried out by around 2,000 people who took part in the hard work, including architects, scaffolders, roofers, metalworkers, metalworkers and organ builders.

The 19th century Gothic spire has since been resurrected with an exact copy of the original.

Notre-Dame, which welcomed 12 million visitors in 2017, expects to receive a much higher number of “14 to 15 million” after reopening, according to church authorities.

French ministers had floated the idea of ​​charging tourists to enter the site, but the Catholic Church said it was important to maintain the principle of free entry.

Unseen by visitors is an ingenious system of pipes ready to release millions of drops of water in the event of future fires.

World leaders are expected to join next week’s reopening, but the guest list has not yet been revealed.

“It is more beautiful than ever, in the renewed splendor of the blonde stones and the color of the chapels,” Macron’s statement said.

“The construction site of this century” was “a challenge that many considered crazy,” the president said of one of the most visited and popular monuments in the French capital.

To the surprise of many, Pope Francis announced in September that he would not be attending the reopening.

In recent years, the French Catholic church has been rocked by allegations of sexual abuse by priests, including a monk known as Abbé Pierre, a charity.

“We are very eager to welcome the whole world under the roof of our cathedral,” Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich said in a message on the cathedral’s website, expressing the church’s gratitude to all who helped save it.

“On the night of April 15, hundreds of thousands of people committed themselves to what seemed impossible: to restore the cathedral and restore its splendor within an unprecedented five-year deadline.”

More than five years later, the investigation into what caused the fire is still ongoing with initial findings supporting the cause of the accident as a short circuit, a welding torch or a cigarette.