Paris: Notre-Dame Cathedral Reopens Five Years After Fire
Paris: Notre-Dame Cathedral RisesReopens fromFive AshesYears After 5-Year RestorationFire
The Facts
The restoration project mobilized roughly 2,000 craftspeople, including stonemasons, carpenters, sculptors, and organ builders, who worked to restore the 12th-century Gothic masterpiece after a devastating fire in April 2019.French Pres. Emmanuel Macron conducted a tour of the newly renovated Notre-Dame Cathedral, officially set to reopen on Dec. 7, five years after a massive fire gutted the Gothic masterpiece.
The renovation included cleaning 42,000 square meters of stone, restoring 8,000 organ pipes, rebuilding the wooden framework roof known as 'the forest,' and reconstructing the 96-meter-tall spire that collapsed during the fire.The five-year restoration project, which cost €700M ($739M), mobilized 2K craftspeople, including stonemasons, carpenters, sculptors, and organ builders, to restore the 12th-century monument.
The Spin
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The modernization efforts and rapid reconstruction timeline may have compromised the cathedral's historical authenticity, with some original medieval elements lost forever and new materials and techniques potentially altering the building's character.
