Inside the $760 million Notre Dame Cathedral restoration

As tourists and Parisians gathered outside the cathedral to admire the iconic structure, which was covered in scaffolding, nearly 500 craftsmen were busy rebuilding it, ready to reopen to the public next year.

The tower, still covered in scaffolding, is set to reopen next year.

During a recent visit to the construction site, French President Emmanuel Macron promised that works would be "on schedule" so that Notre Dame Cathedral would open to the public on December 8, 2024, five years and seven months after the fire that destroyed much of the 860-year-old cathedral, according to CNN.

"By the time of the Olympic Games (July 2024), we expect to have dismantled the upper part of the spire and completed most of the roof, so that Parisians and visitors from all over the world can see how close it is. The cathedral will be open again," Philippe Jost, from Rebuilding Notre Dame de Paris (the public agency responsible for preserving and restoring the cathedral), told the French parliament on December 13.

About 500 craftsmen are working on repairing the church.

According to Rebuilding Notre Dame de Paris, nearly 250 companies and art studios across France have been tasked with “working on the cathedral’s renaissance.” The process includes carpenters, stonemasons, scaffolders, sculptors, gilders, glassmakers, and even organ builders who are restoring the 8,000 pipes and 115 stops of Notre Dame’s massive organ, the largest in France.

After the 2019 fire, the first two years of work were spent securing the building, completing project studies, and awarding contracts. The restoration phase then officially began in 2021.

People watch as Notre Dame Cathedral burns in central Paris on April 15, 2019. Investigators have not yet determined the exact cause of the fire.

In recent months, the most visible progress has been made in restoring the roof frame, spire and the large upper galleries.

14 million visitors are expected to “see the results of the restoration”. For now, those who have admired the gothic structure from the outside are excited at the prospect of being able to re-enter the cathedral.

The reconstruction also includes a way to remember those who helped rebuild the cathedral. The name of the French commander-in-chief who oversaw the reconstruction of Notre Dame before dying in a mountain accident earlier this year has been engraved on the spire’s wooden beam. Jean-Louis Georgelin “will forever be a part” of Notre Dame, said President Macron, who personally participated in the engraving on December 8, the day the cathedral’s oak spire was restored.

The names of others who helped rebuild Notre Dame have also been permanently inscribed on the new cathedral. A sealed tube was placed inside the golden rooster atop the spire on December 16, containing a document listing the names of 2,000 people who worked on the project.

While many parts of the building's reconstruction will remain as they were, President Macron has also taken care to include elements that mark the restoration as a 21st-century achievement.

The cathedral's former spire's rostrum was found, damaged amid the rubble, a day after the fire. Inside it, according to the Diocese of Paris, were relics of St. Denis and St. Geneviève, as well as a fragment of Christ's crown of thorns, all intact and now housed inside the new rostrum.

The old rooster – along with six stained glass windows that are due to be replaced – will be housed in a new museum dedicated to Notre Dame, the opening of which was recently announced by Macron. "It will be an art museum, a history museum, a museum to describe the construction of Notre Dame," he said.

The tower's new golden rooster, designed by architect Philippe Villeneuve, contains relics saved from the fire and a document with the names of those who carried out the reconstruction.

The cost of rebuilding Notre Dame is expected to be around 700 million euros ($767 million). In total, 846 million euros ($928 million) have been raised from 340,000 donors in 150 countries, according to Rebuilding Notre Dame de Paris.

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