Notre Dame Reborn: 3 Things You Need To Know About The Reopened Cathedral
Five years after a devastating fire, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris will reopen this weekend, showing off its rebuilt ceilings and new stonework.
The cathedral’s interior reconstruction — erasing bad memories of the April 2019 fire — is a major step forward despite scaffolding and cranes still working on the damaged exterior.
“The shock of the reopening will — I want to believe — be as powerful as the one of the fire,” French President Emmanuel Macron said last week while getting a preview. “It will be a shock of hope. The inferno of Notre Dame was a wound for the nation.”
Running now through Dec. 31, NewsMatch will match your donations up to $1,000. Your generosity will help keep Religion Unplugged going in 2025 and beyond. You can donate here.
At a cost of $900 million, Notre Dame’s cream-colored limestone walls stand out most — cleaned of the ash and dust from the fire in addition to the centuries of dirt.
The weekend will be highlighted by two days of events to commemorate the reopeening, culminating with Sunday’s Mass that will feature Macron, 40 other heads of state (including President-elect Donald Trump) and nearly 200 bishops.
Pope Francis will not make the trip. President Joe Biden, the country’s second-ever Catholic to sit in the White House, is not expected to attend. His wife, First Lady Jill Biden, will be in attendance.
The events don’t end with this weekend. There will be Masses all of next week for the firefighters who saved the cathedral and workers who helped renovate it. Millions of tourists are expected to visit Notre Dame in 2025.
Here are three things you need to know about Notre Dame’s reopening:
Homage to tradition
While there were fears that the iconic house of worship would be rebuilt to accommodate modern, secular tastes, the Gothic cathedral’s reconstruction is an homage to tradition. The idea of a modern spire proved very unpopular.
“It feels like it was built yesterday, like it’s just been born, even though Notre Dame is very old,” stonemason Adrien Willeme, who worked on the reconstruction, told The Associated Press. “Because it’s been so carefully restored and cleaned, it looks really extraordinary.”
The large holes in the ceiling and charred debris are long gone. They have been replaced by an estimated 2,000 oak trees used to rebuild the roof by carpenters. The intricate wooden beams have been nicknamed “the forest.”
The renovation did add modern fire protection to the roof that was lacking pre-fire, including misting devices, thermal cameras and thicker roof boards that would burn more slowly. The cause of the 2019 fire remains unsolved. French authorities have ruled out arson and say that it was likely an accident stemming from reconstruction work taking place at the time.
Symbol of resilience
A statue of the Virgin Mary and child — known as “The Virgin of Paris” — dates back to Middle Ages. It returned to Notre Dame last month as part of the reconstruction effort.
The statue dates back to the 14th century but moved to Notre Dame in 1818.
The nearly 6-foot-tall stone sculpture survived the blaze in what became a symbol of hope for Catholics across France and the world.
Miraculously intact after the widespread fire, the statue earned the nickname “Stabat Mater” (Standing Virgin) as a symbol of resilience amid the destruction.
During a small ceremony held last month when the statue was placed back inside the cathedral, Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich said, “As we accompany the Virgin Mary to her cathedral, before she takes her place at the pillar where so many generations have come to pray, we know she is joining the house of Christ.”
In a recent interview with Catholic News Agency, Ulrich called Notre Dame’s reopening “a renaissance” and a “rediscovery for the priests and faithful of Paris who have been waiting for this moment for five years.”
France’s new ‘starting point’
Notre Dame’s importance goes beyond faith, history or architecture. For France, it represents a “starting point.”
In front of the cathedral’s entrance is a bronze-and-stone slab on the ground with the inscription, “Point zero des routes de France” (which translate to “Starting point of the roads of France”). The plaque also marks the starting point for measuring distances between Paris and other French cities.
During a televised speech this past Thursday, Macron, currently embroiled in a political stalemate after the country’s prime minister was ousted in a no-confidence vote, said Notre Dame’s reopening is “proof that we can do great things, we can do the impossible.”
“We must do the same for the nation,” he added.
Clemente Lisi is the executive editor of Religion Unplugged. He previously served as deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and a longtime reporter at The New York Post. Follow him on X @ClementeLisi.