Notre-Dame de Paris: the stool, base of the new spire, is ready for final assembly
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Point of progress for the reconstruction of the spire of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral - This week, the wooden stool, i.e. the base on which the spire rests, was mounted blank on the ground by carpenters in a workshop in Meurthe-et-Moselle. It is a kind of rehearsal before the pieces are dismantled one by one, then transported in the coming days to Paris for the final assembly on the cathedral.
Advertising
Read more
Nearly four years after the fire of the cathedral, "soon we will see in the sky of Paris the spire and its rooster," rejoiced this week General Jean-Louis Georgelin, appointed by President Emmanuel Macron to lead the restoration of Notre-Dame.
The president of the public establishment Reconstruire Notre-Dame de Paris, was present during this blank assembly. He is delighted, at the microphone of Lucie Bouteloup, of the society department, that the schedule is respected.
« It is a satisfaction to see that we are keeping the commitment that has been made. There was a lot of skepticism at the beginning: five years is madness, etc., they will not succeed... Well, we are showing that with patience, with tenacity, by making everyone work, we can do it.
It is the result of the work of the architects who have done all their studies, companies, groups, and us, the public agency, who coordinate all this, and it works. It will be reassembled in the coming weeks, so that on April 15, 2023, four years after the fire, the stool of the spire will have been put back in its place, over the skeleton of the vault of the transept crossing. We will resume the construction of the scaffolding, which is currently stopped at 33 meters, and which will culminate at 100 meters, until we manage to put the rooster, and at the end of 2023, we will see in the sky of Paris, the spire and its rooster. »
REPORT - Last rehearsals for the base of the future spire of Notre-Dame de Paris https://t.co/KJ4m6vp0wh pic.twitter.com/QdqlWC4n7v
— LCI (@LCI) March 18, 2023 ► Also listen: Notre-Dame de Paris, a colossal project for an "identical" reconstruction
The spire, which will measure 66 meters high like its model of the nineteenth century, consists of five parts, including the famous "stool", its base on four supports made of exceptional oak, which alone weighs 80 tons. It will be identical to the one that collapsed in the fire of April 15, 2019; and will also culminate at 96 meters from the ground, with the same original materials, oak for the structure (220 tons) and lead for the cover and ornaments (140 tons).
The construction of the spire will begin on the site as soon as the four ashlar arches, which constitute the vault of the transept crossing in the heart of the cathedral, have been rebuilt. The cathedral is scheduled to reopen in late 2024, according to the Ministry of Culture.
► To (re)watch: Three years ago to the day, Notre-Dame Cathedral was ablaze (Slideshow)
(and with AFP)
Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Read on on the same topics:
- Architecture and urban planning
- Paris
- Notre-Dame de Paris