PARIS: Notre Dame Cathedral, that was badly damaged due to fire in 2019, has been renovated (at the cost of 700 million Euros) and will be re-reopened officially By President Emanuel Macron on 7th December, 2024.

1300 craftsmen and women who rebuilt the cathedral will be thanked by the president, who had vowed to rebuild Notre-Dame “even more beautifully” within five years. The blaze gutted the great Paris landmark, destroying the roof, causing the steeple to collapse and leaving France reeling with shock.

Macron announced the fast timescale for restoration – a process some experts said would take decades – in an address to the nation where he hailed how the disaster had shown the capacity of France to mobilize and unite. An unknown number of artefacts and paintings have been lost and the main organ, which had close to 8,000 pipes, has also suffered damage.

But the cathedral’s walls, bell towers and the most famous circular stained-glass windows at France’s most visited tourist attraction remain intact. Macron’s defiant comments indicated he wanted the reconstruction of the cathedral to be completed by the time Paris hosts the Olympic Games in 2024.

“We will rebuild the cathedral even more beautifully and I want it to be finished within five years,” Macron said from the Elysee Palace. “And we can do it.” Macron said that the dramatic fire had brought out the best in a country riven with divisions and since November shaken by sometimes violent protests against his rule. “Our history never stops and that we will always have trials to overcome,” he added.

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