🏛️ Revival of a legend: Notre Dame de Paris will open in 2024

After a devastating fire in 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral will begin welcoming visitors again in December 2024. Although, it is worth noting that complete restoration will only be completed in 2025, if not later.

Now the restoration of the Cathedral is in full swing. In 2021, many of the cathedral's towers, vaults and walls were restored. In February 2023, construction began on a replica of the 19th-century spire by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, which collapsed in a fire. Its construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

In 2023, about 1,000 people are working on the restoration of Notre Dame in Paris. They want to carry out the reconstruction using the same materials and methods that were used in the 12th century. To achieve this, skilled artisans were employed, including masons, carpenters, mortar makers and stone cutters.

From 2019 to 2021, $197 million was allocated for reconstruction. This money was used to stabilize the vaults inside the cathedral, as well as to dismantle the scaffolding on site during the fire. French authorities have not yet decided on a budget for the total cost of the work, but a major European insurance company compares the project to the renovation of the British Parliament buildings in London and estimates it at about $8 billion.

Despite the fact that it is now impossible to get into the Cathedral, a couple of exhibits offer an inside look at this large-scale reconstruction. The exhibition ” Notre-Dame de Paris: At the Heart of the Restoration,” located in the new cultural center under the cathedral in a former garage, contains damaged artifacts recovered from the fire. The exhibition will be available until December 2024.

And the Museum of Architecture and Cultural Heritage on the Trocadero in Notre-Dame de Paris displays statues of the apostles and evangelists, which were removed from the cathedral spire for restoration work four days before the fire.