To the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, there is one year left; it has received a new cross

Paris - A year before its reopening, the Parisian cathedral of Notre-Dame received a cross for its new tower, which was destroyed by fire four years ago. A lead covering now remains to be placed on the roof of the tower so that scaffolding can be removed from the cathedral and it can welcome back worshippers and tourists next December, the AFP agency reported.

The tower above the nave was one of the parts of the building that was consumed by flames in the fire in April 2019. Restoration workers and craftsmen involved in the restoration of the cathedral replaced the 19th-century tower with a faithful replica created according to the designs of the original author, the French architect Eugène Viollet-Le-Duc.

On Wednesday, a crane lifted the cross onto the tower, with which the cathedral reaches a height of 96 meters. After the tower receives the lead covering, workers will be able to dismantle the scaffolding that has covered a significant part of the building since the restoration began.

"The anticipation and preparation for the reopening are amazing symbols of hope in this difficult world," said Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, the cathedral's rector, to the AP agency. The Parisian cathedral is not the largest or the most beautiful in France, but it is "the embodiment of the soul of the nation," he added. On Friday, President Emmanuel Macron plans to visit the cathedral to assess the progress of the work and remind that it will be reopened on December 8, 2024.

The reconstruction of the outer part of the cathedral is expected to be practically completed by next July when Paris anticipates a surge of visitors during the two-week Olympics. The final work will take place inside, where, among other things, the massive organ with 8,000 pipes, which is the largest musical instrument in France, will need to be tuned.

The world-famous architectural and ecclesiastical monument in the heart of Paris was engulfed by flames on April 15, 2019. The fire spread in the roof structure and consumed vast sections of the medieval building. The cause of the fire has not yet been fully clarified. It may have been caused by an electrical fault or a discarded cigarette. Before the fire, the monument, protected by UNESCO and famous for Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, attracted around 13 million visitors annually.