French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday (December 8th) that contemporary stained-glass windows would be made to bear "the mark of the 2019st century" at Notre-Dame de Paris after the <> fire, a year to the day before the planned reopening of the cathedral to which he intends to invite the pope.

Asked on France 2 about the possible presence of Pope Francis at the ceremony scheduled for December 8, 2024, the head of state replied: "I hope so, in any case we will invite him".

🔴 🗣 "We will invite" the Pope to inaugurate the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris, @EmmanuelMacron announces.

▶️ #JT13h pic.twitter.com/cntzZ4F8V4

— Info France 2 (@infofrance2) December 8, 2023

Emmanuel Macron went to the construction site to start the countdown to D-365 for the reopening to worship and the public. And especially at the top of the new spire which, at an altitude of 96 meters, has reappeared in recent days under the scaffolding and has been surmounted since Wednesday by its cross, waiting for its rooster which is soon to be blessed according to Catholic tradition.

Notre-Dame regains its spire! pic.twitter.com/qRl6LissYV

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 8, 2023

"We are meeting the deadlines," said the French president, who had set an ambitious timetable for reconstruction in five years. "It is a great image of hope and a France that knows how to rebuild," he added to the press. He spoke of "an important and moving moment" that testifies to the "extraordinary progress" of "this project that seemed impossible".

On April 15, 2019, a spectacular fire ravaged the cathedral whose spire, designed by 12th-century architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, collapsed before the eyes of Parisians and tourists. The images of the flames were broadcast live, stirring up global emotion. Before the disaster, it attracted an average of <> million visitors each year.

Emmanuel Macron symbolically gave the final blow of the chisel to the inscription, in the wood of the spire, of the name of "his general", Jean-Louis Georgelin, whom he had initially entrusted with carrying out the titanic project and who died last summer. "The general (Jean-Louis Georgelin) was known and loved on this site and we know what we owe him," said his successor Philippe Jost, referring to a site full of "symbols".

Eternal. pic.twitter.com/9BPghBG8xP

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 8, 2023

Lead controversy

The President of the Republic, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron, then went to the nave and choir of the cathedral, which are beginning to be cleared of their scaffolding.

In a letter sent this week, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris confirmed his "wish" to see the state order "a series of six stained glass windows for the south side chapels of the nave."

"I fully subscribe to it," Macron said on Friday. "It is with my full agreement that we are going to launch a competition that will allow contemporary artists to submit, on the basis of a commission that is going to be placed, a figurative work," he added.

According to him, "the century that is ours will have its place among several others that appear in the works of this cathedral", a jewel of Gothic art that he has also decided to have rebuilt "identically".

The Head of State also announced that the old stained glass windows, "which will be removed" and "which date from Viollet-le-Duc", as well as the rooster that fell on April 15, 2019 in the collapse of the spire, "will take their place in a museum of the work of Notre-Dame de Paris" which will see the light of day "in the premises of the Hôtel-Dieu", nearby on the Ile de la Cité.

After the spire, the next step should be its lead covering, as well as that of the roof. A choice that continues to create controversy. Green senator Anne Souyris, former deputy health minister to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, called on Tuesday on the social network X (formerly Twitter) to "suspend the work while a health authority decides on the risks of its more than 400 tons of lead."

"It is a good decision", "taking into account the health constraints but also on the architectural level" because of its "coherence", defended Friday Emmanuel Macron, ensuring that the prefect of the Ile-de-France region had "conducted the studies himself".

With AFP

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