PARIS: The reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral, which lasted more than five years, has featured some near-miraculous recoveries, as well as several controversies.
With the cathedral formally reopening on Saturday, AFP Analyze some of the key moments:
the saviors
Paris firefighters won universal praise for their quick and decisive action on the night of April 15, 2019, and officials later said they thought they were just 30 minutes away from seeing the structure collapse.
Battling smoke and the risk of falling debris, they formed a human chain with church officials to evacuate the most precious religious artifacts and treasures, helping to preserve most of the cathedral's irreplaceable contents.
Others saw divine intervention in how a copper statue of a rooster that had sat atop the 19th-century building's burned spire was later found intact among the charred rubble.
Its contents (three relics, including a small piece of the Crown of Thorns supposedly worn by Jesus before his crucifixion) also survived, and the battered rooster is now on display in a Paris museum.
Inside the cathedral, images from the day after the fire revealed that a giant gold cross on the altar was still standing amid the still-smoldering remains, a symbol of hope and defiance for many on a dark day for Christians and the country in general.
Contested design competition
French President Emmanuel Macron called the fire “an opportunity to unite,” but any sense of national unity after the disaster was quickly broken.
His suggestion to include an “element of modern architecture” in the reconstruction drew immediate criticism from conservators who demanded that the reconstruction be faithful to the last major update made by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in 1844.
The army general in charge of the reconstruction publicly feuded with the chief architect over the redesign, while nominations for an architectural competition to select a new spire generated lurid headlines.
A suggestion shown by First Lady Brigitte Macron to then-Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot resembled a “phallus with its base surrounded by golden balls,” Bachelot wrote in a book.
In the end a replica of the old spire was built.
Six new stained glass windows will be installed featuring works by contemporary artists, a modest nod to modernity and Macron's original vision.
main role
Notre-Dame's roof and spire were covered in around 400 tons of lead, a toxic heavy metal that melted and vaporized in the heat of the fire, and some is believed to have contaminated the surrounding area.
Authorities cleaned nearby schools and advised local residents to clean surfaces in their homes due to the risk of poisoning.
A health charity joined forces with a union and parents of local schoolchildren to file a criminal complaint in 2022 accusing authorities of failing to take all precautions to prevent pollution.
Charges may be laid if authorities or contractors are found to have been negligent in protecting the health of residents or workers sent to decontaminate the site, with an investigating magistrate overseeing the investigation.
Unknown cause
Paris' chief prosecutor at the time of the fire, Remy Heitz, said shortly after the fire that he believed the most likely cause was an accident such as an electrical fault or a cigarette butt.
Some of the workers renovating the roof at the time of the fire were known to be smoking at the site, but investigators were never able to determine the exact starting point.
Five years of forensic analysis investigated speculation about an arson attack, but no evidence was found.
The current chief prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau, stated in April that “the closer we get to the scene of the fire and the more analysis results we obtain, the more weight is given to the theory of an accident.”
Rate row
Culture Minister Rachida Dati has proposed that visitors to the restored cathedral pay an entrance fee of five euros ($5.25), with the funds going to some 4,000 churches in need of repairs across France.
Charging for admission (entering Notre-Dame was previously free) would align the tourist attraction with St. Paul's Cathedral in London or the Duomo in Milan.
But senior French church leaders have criticized the idea, with one senior bishop saying churches and cathedrals “have always been places open to all” and that making money from visitors would be a “betrayal of their original vocation.”
The French State is the owner of Notre-Dame and has the final say.
