It’s been a long five years of reconstruction, but the dedicated workers at Notre Dame de Paris are in the home stretch before the famed cathedral’s December 8 reopening. A recent video from Vatican News showed how much of the repair work on the roof – including the iconic spire designed by Viollet-le-Duc – have been completed. Now the bells are being replaced, but they won’t sound together until reopening day.
The AP News reports that the eight enormous bells of Notre Dame – the largest weighing four tons – required a convoy of trucks to transport. Cathedral Rector Olivier Ribadeau Dumas explained that the bells would first be blessed in a special ceremony before they can be replaced. When the time comes, each bell will be lifted into the towers by crane and each bell will be tested individually.
While the majority of the church is the same, it will now be equipped with all the modern fire suppressing tecnhology it could need. One new addition is a new housing for the reliquary of the Crown of Thorns, but most of the work has been focused on recreating the cathedral exactly as it was before the 2019 fire.
Still, this was a feat that was impossible, as Archbishop Laurent Ulrich, of Paris, explained to Vatican News. He said that due to the nature of the renovation and cleaning work, much of the grit that had built up over the centuries has been cleaned from Notre Dame. The archbishop described a much brighter church with more vibrant colors, cleaned stone and restored frescoes.
"Do not be content with seeing the magnificent stones," the Archbishop told his faithful. "Do not forget that this is a gift from God and a gift for God. Do not forget that, humbly, people did what God asked them to do to manifest the Catholic faith. And so, we are not proud of what was done here. We are simply grateful."
Read more at Vatican News and see the progress in the video featured below.
