Notre Dame Cathedral is expected to reopen for visitations by the end of 2024 – five years after fire threatened the existence of this Parisian icon.
According to Euronews and AP, the restoration of the cathedral will not be ready for the Paris Olympics, which are set to happen next summer. Still, by December 8, 2024, the object will be opened again.
My job is to be ready to open this cathedral in 2024 – and we will do it. We are fighting every day for that, and we are on a good path.
The French Culture Minister also pointed out that the cathedral will still need to have its renovation work done even in 2025, as reconstruction will continue to occur despite the object being open for visits.
The reconstruction of the Parisian icon began in 2022 – more than two years of work to make the cathedral stable and secure for workers to rebuild it. Authorities have decided to rebuild the icon the way it was before, which includes recreating a 96-metre-high spire from the 19th century.
Around 1,000 people across France are working for the restoration of Notre Dame, which this year will bring back the cathedral’s icon centerpiece, which was ruined in the fire.
The return of the spire in Paris’ sky will, in my opinion, be the symbol that we are winning the battle of Notre Dame. We have a lot of different works to achieve: the framework, the painting, the stones, the vault, the organ, the stained glasses and so on.
The monument attracts millions of people every year, with 12 to 14 million tourists visiting the cathedral every year, which totals more than 30,000 per day. The monument is particularly famous among couples who come to crown their love there. Every day, several religious services were held in front of the monument, while, in total, more than 2,000 take place every year.
Data by Statista show that the Notre Dame Cathedral’s spire is 96 meters tall, and the Grand Organ has 7,374 pipes, playing music for 13 million visitors per year. Tourists spent an average of 120 minutes to visit the monument.
The correct amount spent to renovate the monument has not been known yet, but in the first year of the incident, some €1 billion is believed to have been raised, out of which €750 million had already been confirmed in the first ten delays of the fire.
