When a fire broke out at the Notre Dame Cathedral in April 2019, people the world over grieved with Parisians as centuries of history and culture went up in smoke alongside the sacred structure. In the nearly six years since, restoration teams have been working tirelessly to resurrect France’s iconic church, which was built over 850 years ago — and finally, it’s ready to open its doors again.
On Saturday afternoon, the archbishop of Paris presided over a private reopening ceremony, a high-security event that President Emmanuel Macron and around 50 other heads of state and government attended. It began with a door-opening rite, which was followed by a three-part church service accompanied by the choirs of the Notre-Dame de Paris Choir School.
After the service, the party started, so to speak. A stacked lineup of musicians performed, including South African opera singer Pretty Yende, Chinese pianist Lang Lang, French DJ Michaël Canitrot, and American cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, musical director of the LA Philharmonic orchestra, took the stage with Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, per Paris Secret.
Today commences “an octave of reopening,” an eight-day period of celebration. The first Mass in the cathedral since 2019 takes place this morning, also marking the first time the public is welcomed back inside. Beginning Dec. 16, the church’s regular daily schedule will resume, with events and weekly concerts lined up through July 2025.
“Over the course of the year, 1,000 years of music will resonate within the cathedral through 50 concerts, featuring 20 international soloists, 15 guest orchestras and choirs, 12 grand organ recitals, and no fewer than six world premieres,” per the official website.
Originally, the restoration was planned to be completed within five years of the blaze — before the 2024 Summer Olympics. The massive undertaking required a bit more time, though, and remains ongoing. While the cathedral’s exterior still very much resembles a construction site, the interior looks as stunning as it did pre-fire — as revealed in first look photos released late last month.
“It feels like it was built yesterday, like it’s just been born, even though Notre Dame is very old,” stonemason Adrien Willeme, who worked on the reconstruction, told the Associated Press. “Because it’s been so carefully restored and cleaned, it looks really extraordinary.”
The long-awaited reopening is thanks in great part to the nearly $900 million in donations that have poured in since 2019, The New York Times reported, but even more so to the hundreds of individuals who spent countless hours working to restore the cathedral. On Île de la Cité, the island in the heart of Paris where Notre Dame is located, those people are called “compagnons,” a shortened version of “Les Compagnons du Devior,” or Companions of Duty, an organization that has existed since the Middle Ages.
All across the city, these craftspeople — including carpenters, art restorers, metal workers, stonemasons, roofers, and other artisans — have put meticulous detail into the renovations. Per NPR, one of the first tasks that restorers undertook was repairing the cathedral’s roof, a medieval wooden structure so enormous it was dubbed “the forest.” To re-create it, workers — including some from the nonprofit Carpenters Without Borders — hand cut 1,400 tree trunks into long beams.
And the import of their efforts isn’t lost on the restorers. In fact, for the generation who came of age after the fire, the impact of the restoration project has been dubbed the “Notre Dame effect,” CBS News reported.
“Yes, the Notre Dame effect had a lot of impact on young people,” Philomene Thivet Mazzantti, an apprentice metal worker who was just 12 years old when the fire occurred, told 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker, explaining the sense of pride she and her peers hold for contributing. “You say to yourself that you left your mark on this historic monument.”
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