- Slug: Sports–Notre Dame Cathedral, 840 words.
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By David Bernauer
Cronkite News
PARIS – April 15, 2019, is a date many Parisians can never forget.
“We heard lots of sirens here and we knew there was something big going on,” said Marleen Soto, a local tour guide.
Notre Dame, one of the planet’s finest examples of gothic architecture, a world landmark and the site of millions of visitors, was up in flames.
“It was horrible,” Soto said. “We were all standing on the streets together with the neighbors, with our friends in our neighborhood, and we were crying. Then we went home and watched it on television and we saw the (spire) collapsing right on the roof.”
The cathedral which has stood as the heart of Paris and France for centuries was now in tatters. Donations amounting to almost $1 billion came pouring in from around the world to help repair one of the city’s centerpieces along the Seine. The highlight of its reconstruction is the new spire, made from the wood of about 1,000 French oak trees and features a phoenix and time capsule atop, is meant to symbolize Notre Dame’s rebirth. While the rest of the building is not complete yet, visitors still flock to see its facade.
“So I came here last year, February 2023, and this was actually one of the first places I came to when I studied abroad,” said Francesca Marie Maglalang, who is in Paris on a study abroad trip and frequently passes by Notre Dame’s exterior
Since the flames ravaged the centuries-old gothic cathedral over five years ago, visitors have not been able to go inside its walls. The inside is slated to reopen in December while the exterior isn’t expected to be fully redone until 2028. However, it was supposed to be reopened in time for the Olympics. This and the reality that visitors can only view it from outside has left some disappointed.
“Coming to the Olympics was also one of my childhood dreams,” Maglagang said. “So I was like, maybe when I come back next year it will be open, but it’s still not open at this time.”
This isn’t to say visitors and locals aren’t noticing the speed at which they’ve been able to rebuild Notre Dame. One of these people is Aaron Schultz, who happened to attend the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
“It’s really cool and I’m impressed to see it,” Schultz said. “I’ve obviously seen pictures (of Notre Dame before the fire) and it looks like the pictures. It’s cool to see the outside and obviously there’s a ton of other stuff going on around here in Paris.”
Soto said, “As a local guide, I’m here all the time and I see the advances, I see the progress and how they re-established the church, and it’s crazy how they managed everything. And there are lots of documentaries on the television, interviewing the people working here and I’m thrilled that she’s back.”
Work on the cathedral has continued day and night, on weekdays and weekends, on holidays and on blazing summers and freezing winters. The project to rebuild the immortal landmark has seen multiple hiccups, including a worldwide pandemic and the death of General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the man in charge of overseeing its restoration. Despite this and using medieval materials and methods to stay true to the history of Notre Dame, it’s still close to the original five-year plan President Emmanuel Macron envisioned after the fire was put out.
“I mostly remember just the picture of the spire falling down and just seeing the top of it in flames, so it’s cool to see it right now in its current state,” Schultz said.
But the appeal is still being able to go inside the building and see the story of French history written in the stained glass windows, archways and sculptures. Walking through the doors of Notre Dame is supposed to give a surreal feeling visitors can’t find anywhere else.
“I’m excited to go back inside because a big reason why I wanted to come to Paris in the first place was my dad,” Maglagang said. “He worked (in Paris) for a little bit and he told me that he loved going to Notre Dame, which is like one of his favorite places ever. He said that when you step inside the church, it was unreal. I wish I could experience that myself one day.”
In total, the rebuilding and renovation has cost nearly $900 million dollars. Construction on Notre Dame took nearly 200 years to complete and generations of people never got to see the cathedral be finished. This time, its rebuilders and people around the world can see this phoenix rise from the ashes.
“When we found out that these two towers, they survived and that the president was saying, ‘Ok, we’re really going to do anything to save this church,’ then I thought, ‘Ok, we’re going to do anything,’” Soto said. “This is France. We really want to keep our history and our historical monuments. And this is one of them, maybe the most important one.”
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