Five years after a massive fire devastated the centuries-old Notre-Dame de Paris and toppled its iconic spire, leaving a gaping hole in the heart of Paris while the world watched helplessly, the Catholic cathedral has been restored to its former glory Has been installed and will be reopened next month amid grand celebrations.
Ex-boss Elon Musk, in a post on the micro-blogging site, provided a glimpse of the Gothic monument, which multiple reports claim has been rebuilt with the help of hundreds of expert craftsmen and millions in donations.
“Notre-Dame has been restored,” Musk said on Twitter, as he shared a 94-minute clip of the renovated cathedral, which is scheduled to reopen on December 7.
Notre-Dame has been restored!
pic.twitter.com/g7RKQDHRlr
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 21 November 2024
A report by National Geographic states that everything decorated – the frescoes, the checked floors, and the bells – has been removed from the belfry, cleaned of lead dust, and restored in the Norman foundry. Where they were first minted – among others. A high-tech new lighting system will also contribute to the effect.
According to Forbes, the renovation was carried out at a cost of approximately 500 million euros.
“A surplus of about 140 million euros will be used for future conservation work on the 861-year-old building,” Philipp Jost, who is overseeing the project, told Forbes.
An AFP report said that before the fire, Notre-Dame was one of the most visited buildings in Europe, with 14 to 15 million visitors expected per year when the cathedral reopens next month .
On April 15, 2019, a fire broke out in the attic, beneath the cathedral’s roof, causing serious damage to the wooden spire, which collapsed, and the wooden ceiling, in addition to the cathedral’s upper walls.
Many works of art and religious relics were moved to safety but others were damaged by the smoke. Some outdoor artworks were also damaged or destroyed in the fire. At least two police officers and one firefighter were injured as about 400 firefighters worked through the night and took about nine hours to extinguish the fire.
According to the European Commission (a politically independent executive branch of the European Union), a large part of the cathedral’s roof and spire were made of lead, and some studies have shown that 150 kilograms of lead was spilled during the fire. Others indicated that a ton of lead may have fallen within a kilometer of the cathedral.
According to Reuters, the exact cause of the fire could not be determined, but French officials claimed that an electrical fault or a cigarette could have been responsible for the fire.
For the first time since 1803, Notre-Dame did not hold a Christmas celebration in 2019. French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a five-year plan to rebuild what was lost.
