It was 6:20 p.m. on April 15, 2019, when a fire broke out at the frame of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral. For almost fifteen hours, the building was the victim of a terrible fire. The whole world is watching this masterpiece of universal heritage. The arrow does not resist, but the Gothic gem is still standing.
A year later, the site, launched just after the disaster, is on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. For this sad anniversary, only the big drone "Emmanuel" from the South Tower of Notre-Dame de Paris will ring on Wednesday at 8 p.m. to commemorate the start of the cathedral fire.
General Jean-Louis Georgelin, president of the public establishment in charge of the restoration of the Gothic jewel of the Île de la Cité, "made the decision to ring this bell in union with the French who applaud the caregivers at the same time engaged against the coronavirus ", indicated the direction of the communication of the Public establishment. This will be the only event planned for the occasion.
🇫🇷 # France Just a year ago, on April 15, 2019, the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral was ablaze.
Today, due to a pandemic, the security and consolidation project is stopped.
Report @Armelle_caux @ cntrentF24 @ AlexRenardF24 #ParisDirect pic.twitter.com/pFRxKLScId
A dormant construction site
In mid-March, the 80 or so workers and companions on the site (carpenters, scaffolders, rope access technicians) left the site due to confinement. The delicate dismantling of the destroyed scaffolding, 40,000 pieces of metal melted by fire, with the help of the gigantic crane overhanging the building, is postponed.
Since the fire, difficulties have accumulated, starting with lead pollution, which has worried local residents and forced workers to wear coveralls and shower when leaving the site.
The mayor of Paris, owner of the surroundings of the cathedral, which belongs to the State, has already planned to lay a coating on the forecourt. "A March 6 poll showed a drastic drop in the presence of lead on the forecourt and in the soil," Christophe Girard, culture assistant at the Paris city hall, told Reuters, who is planning a complete redevelopment of the city. Île de la Cité where other tourist places are located such as the Sainte-Chapelle and the Palais de Justice.
In the meantime, the cathedral, which is still legally under the regime of a peril order, is monitored by a hundred sensors measuring the slightest oscillation of the structure which supports a vault with holes in three places, on which still weighs a mass of remains of the charred roof.
The board of directors of the public establishment responsible for the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame, headed by General Jean-Louis Georgelin and where the State, the Archbishopric and the City Hall of Paris, is in the process of reassess the cost of the current securing phase, for which 85 million euros have so far been committed.
Donors from around the world
Entirely based on donations, the building, which welcomed around 14 million visitors per year, is funded in stages, thanks to 134,000 donors from around the world.
"There were 901 million euros in donations and pledges and 188 million euros were collected," Jérémie Patrier-Leitus, director of communications for the public establishment, told Reuters. "The differential does not mean that donors would like to opt out, but we are appealing for funds based on funding needs."
The big donors, the Pinault, Arnault, Bettencourt, Bouygues, Michelin families, the Total, Axa, L'Oreal groups, JCDecaux among many others, have signed ad hoc agreements.
"I do not have the shadow of a concern that the commitments that have been made will be kept because they are great signatures," Christophe-Charles Rousselot, general delegate of the Notre-Dame Foundation told Reuters Dame de Paris, one of the structures collecting donations with the Heritage Foundation and the Fondation de France, in particular.
In his eyes, donations will flow once the reconstruction project is better defined. Much discussed after the fire, where the wildest ideas arose, green roof even provided with a swimming pool, glass spire, the appearance of the future cathedral will have to be the subject of a "calm debate", says the entourage of General Georgelin. Despite the slowness, the objective of a reopening set by Emmanuel Macron remains, between now and the 2024 Olympic Games.
Friday, the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Michel Aupetit, had organized a ceremony with artists in the cathedral on the occasion of Good Friday, to celebrate the significance and the beauty of the religious building.
Good Friday at Notre-Dame, at the foot of the Cross of Glory, in front of the Crown of thorns, in prayer with the world.
(c) Notre-Dame de Paris pic.twitter.com/f9Dl9bzG42
With AFP and Reuters
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