As of: April 15, 2024 2:58 p.m
April 15th marks the 5th anniversary of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral. Now it is clear: the doors of the landmark in Paris will open again on December 8th. A site visit.
The wooden spire peels out of the scaffolding covered in lead. The wound in the church roof has been closed since mid-March. Floor tiles are laid inside. Vaults and frescoes, stained glass windows and organ pipes have been restored and cleaned. A sprinkler system is intended to prevent fires in the future. Above everything, at a height of 96 meters, the new golden weathercock floats with relics in its belly and the list of all those who are carrying out the reconstruction.
Including Léonard Laforest, short black hair, safety shoes and only 19 years old. As the youngest carpenter, he was allowed to hoist the topping-out wreath on the top of the tower at the beginning of the year. Like his colleagues, Léonard comes from a special workshop – from the Ateliers Perrault, founded in 1760, a good 300 kilometers southwest of the Loire: “I still had to learn everything: cutting wood, cutting edges, making connections, carving a supporting structure, putting up a roof. It’s impressive. I’m very small on a construction site of this size. It was a shock that I’ve been able to immerse myself here since my first year of training.” Every day an inner voice tells him: What you are doing is wonderful. “I experienced all the stages, the beginning and now the end,” says the young carpenter. “That’s great. Everything is complete.”
Notre Dame: construction site of the century in the heart of Paris
Just as the President wanted. Exactly a year before the reopening, Emmanuel Macron declared at the construction site: “Since April 2019, the whole nation has been involved in the reconstruction. And every April 15th we were here and saw how what seemed impossible is progressing. Extraordinary! And we are keeping it Schedule. It’s a great picture of hope, of a France that can rebuild.” Over 2,000 people are involved: stonemasons, painting restorers, roofers, fire protection technicians, heating technicians, electricians, carpenters. Over 250 companies are there: including 45 sawmills, three organ manufacturers, competitors who are now working together.
There were over 130 public tenders. Some companies from Germany and Great Britain are also involved. A construction site of the century, confirms chief architect Philippe Villeneuve on French television: “It is the first time that we are restoring a cathedral outside of a war. It is a pharaonic construction site because all parts of the building are affected. And we only have a very short one time frame.” This also means that the archaeologists would perhaps have preferred to dig longer, environmentalists would have preferred to debate longer about the lead coating and art historians would have preferred to debate longer about replacing six windows with modern ones. But things had to move forward.
Further information
Arte has published a three-part documentary about the reconstruction of Notre Dame. The soundtrack comes from Johann Pätzold from Rostock. more
Nobody needs to be motivated
Construction containers stand in a side alley, the trades building behind them is full of people. The accommodation is spartan. But there was no strike here, as was the case recently at the Eiffel Tower. Nobody needed to be motivated here. Maybe because they want to write themselves into history, like carpenter Pierre Voiron, who rebuilt the choir and apse: “After I studied in Germany, I went back to France and learned the old methods of axing the wood by hand specialized in the ax and so I was lucky enough to be involved. It’s a life experience.”
In principle, craftsmen working in monument protection in France receive several hundred euros more in wages. Your work at Notre Dame has dimensions that make you dizzy. 1,300 technical drawings were created for the roof structure of the nave and choir alone. And the financing? The state construction site manager Philippe Jost: “Over 340,000 donors from 150 countries gave around 850 million euros – including major patrons, but also children. The reconstruction was financed in just a few hours. They are all connected to Notre Dame because the cathedral has a soul. I take my hat off to all art craftsmen.”
Claim to be a world center of arts and crafts
Notre Dame generates young talent and promotes France’s ambition to become a world center of arts and crafts. And so the teacher of the youngest of the carpenters from the Loire Valley, Mathieu Gornouvel, remembers the moment when his protégé raised the topping-out wreath: “He was very tense, he represented all of us. We have high demands on ourselves because we wanted to maintain quality and schedule. And now we are proud, proud forever.”
Further information
The Notre Dame fire shocked people around the world. There are countless reasons for the reconstruction that has already been decided. NDR Kultur is limited to ten. more
At the beginning of Holy Week, tragedy strikes France: a fire has devastated parts of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Many people were there – crying or praying. more
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NDR Culture | The Morning | April 15, 2024 | 07:20 am