from tragedy to controversy over reconstruction

Two years ago, flames devoured Notre-Dame Cathedral, in a terrible fire that moved France and the whole world. For hours and with the firefighters in a heroic battle, the Grande Dame of Paris disappeared, before the eyes of thousands of French people, who had gathered in front of the Seine to watch with pain how the fire took away one more story 1000 years old, witness to the life of the nation and the world. The surprise was to see her standing the next day, fragile but not falling.

Today, the pandemic is delaying its reconstruction. The mayor of Paris with presidential ambitions, Anne Hidalgo, planned works of 50 million euros to receive millions of Parisians and not just tourists, when the virus has slowed tourism and the concept is reinvented to bring it back to life.

President Emmanuel Macron visited the cathedral under construction Thursday morning, like that night of the fire, April 15, 2019, when he promised it would be rehabilitated in five years. It was his first return after the disaster. This time dressed as a worker, with helmet, uniform and mask. He was accompanied by Mayor Hidalgo.

Under the leadership of General Jean Louis Georgelin, in charge of the controversial reconstruction, and of the work’s chief architect, Philippe Villeneuve, he toured the cathedral.

Freshly recovered from the coronavirus, the Minister of Culture Roseyln Bachelot remained on the ground floor due to dizziness and freshly released from intensive care at the hospital.

Emmanuel Macron’s visit

Macron spoke with the workers, with the roofers, with the carpenters. All the corporations are there, some specially trained to repair this historic monument, which is not a cathedral for the French in the name of secularism. The owner is not the Catholic Church, which has the right to use it, but the French State.

Optimistically, Macron said the reconstruction of the cathedral “will be completed in 2024”. No one has contradicted it but those who are on the ground and in the cathedral know that it is a voluntary date.

Until this winter the cathedral was not safe and could even fall, because of the way the water eroded the stones, the force of the wind and the weight of the structure that had been fitted out for its previous repair, which burned down and dangerously embedded in the building.

It was dismantled iron by iron, in a titanic and dangerous profession.

What happened to the donations?

Millionaire donations from the faithful were spent during these two years to secure the cathedral. We don’t know how much it will ultimately cost to rebuild.

“We are all in awe of what we see. We have seen that in two years, they have done an immense job to secure the place, an expert job that is finished. We remember the emotion of all Catholics and all Parisians two years ago, ”said Macron in the cathedral under reconstruction.

“We see the next three years to maintain our goals, with demanding and rigorous planning. It takes volunteerism and hope, ”continued the president.

Today’s cathedral is far from resembling the original. The stained glass windows have been removed, warped by fire, to be repaired. The windows have been replaced with large plastic. It is a huge cannibalized site, closed to the public with its surroundings.

A huge yellow crane dominates this Gothic cathedral, as visited as the Eiffel Tower. Today, both have closed: one due to the fire and the other due to the pandemic.

On April 15, 2019, the great Emmanuel bell tower of the south tower of the cathedral sounded, at 8 o’clock in the evening, as a symbol of the resilience of the Old Lady of Paris.

Two years after the tragedy, the cathedral is insured and renovations could begin in September. The monument is consolidated and safe to begin work and the safety conditions are met for workers to work there.

The stonemasons have had a hell of a job during those two years. Carpenters, sculptors, cordistas, roofers, played a fundamental role in securing this Gothic cathedral.

The “heroes” of reconstruction

There was no suitable staff. There aren’t too many specialists left. It was Régis Deltour, stonemason and head of the Mollard-Deltour company in Savoie, who received the call. He called a team: “the mercenaries”, as they called themselves.

About ten craftsmen from all over France to begin the recovery of “the work of the century”. It was they who proposed to the architect specializing in historical monuments Philippe Villeneuve to build a large wooden work, under the arcades, “to avoid the worst” in case the cathedral should fall. Like a double cathedral of protection of the other.

This type of suspension buttress made it possible to consolidate the building. Then they started to build huge wooden structures with the carpenters. The stonemasons have made reinforcements to maintain them.

For two years, the team of “mercenaries” was called upon to consolidate the vault, to clean the gargoyles at the mouth of the fire.

Together with the carpenters, they played a fundamental role in this phase of the reconstruction. Their names will go down in the history of the preservation of Notre-Dame after the tragedy, with their traditional methods, already in extinction.

“Security rules prevent them from moving around in the safes. Therefore, they all had to work in suspension, ”said Flavier Bagot, one of the team members. “Very complicated. But there was a playful side. We were a group of friends doing acrobatics in the vault of Notre-Dame,” he recalls.

But this challenge occurs once every 800 years. “And this time, it was our turn,” admitted Thierry Chadouin, a member of the team, proudly.

A unique job, with team spirit, patriotism, challenge, enthusiasm and at the same time, great consideration for safety, because the cathedral was very fragile. Technicians, architects, carpenters, took care of each other, in a real work of workers’ solidarity.

Expenses

According to Guillaume Potyrinal, the president of the Heritage Foundation, securing the monument cost more than 100 million euros to date.

The sum exceeds the donations of 338,000 people, who helped to participate in this financial effort which shook the world. The state has not yet put money.

They saved the building, lifted the burnt iron shuttering one by one, established protective measures and they created a real city around the cathedral, which is called construction facilities. Offices, discussion rooms for architects, bathrooms, showers for workers.

All this cost all private donations and part of corporate donations, such as that of François Pinault and Bernard Arnault. In total, 833 million euros were obtained for the reconstruction and 233 million obtained by the Heritage Foundation.

“The current state of work will allow us to have a beautiful reopening ceremony of Notre-Dame in 2024”, announced the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot.

A controversial modernization project

Restore the capital and rebuild its future. This is the great challenge facing this national, spiritual and fundamental monument for Catholics all over the world.

The mayor of the capital of France has planned to present this Thursday, before the Council of Paris, a modernization project of the surroundings of Notre Dame de Paris, which belong to the city.

If the project is accepted and voted on, the changes concern the large courtyard that surrounds the cathedral, the Juan XXIII and Ille de France squares and the adjacent streets of the Cloître Notre Dame, de la Cité and del Arzobispo.

The parking lot under the courtyard of the cathedral could be removed to make room for the reception of Parisians, tourists and pilgrims.

The mayor considers that “these spaces are too oriented towards tourism”. Architects, landscapers and town planners will give their opinion to change direction and a citizens’ committee will be consulted. There are also plans to create a green space around the cathedral.

The mayor changes Paris without the slightest consensus with those who live there: cycle paths to the cathedral.

Many are leaving the city. This project will add to your long list of controversies. She wants to bring Parisians back to the cathedral district and not just tourists.

But the Archbishop of Paris deplores the lack of structure to receive the 12 million tourists when it rains and the district has turned into a series of souvenir shops.

The debate on Notre-Dame seems endless. The mayor added another sulphurous controversy for the surroundings of the most visited cathedral in France, which everyone dreams of seeing open and standing and as it was before.

Paris, correspondent

CB

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