Notre-Dame Reopens Five Years After the Fire

On the evening of 7 December 2024, the great bell of Notre-Dame de Paris, the 13-ton Emmanuel, tolled across the French capital as the cathedral came back to life. The medieval Catholic cathedral formally reopened its doors following an extensive restoration campaign prompted by the catastrophic fire of 15 April 2019. That blaze, originating in the timber roof space shortly before twilight, had consumed the famous wooden spire and devastated the upper framework, while threatening the entire structure. The building's stone vaults bore the brunt of the falling debris and prevented widespread ruin below, allowing religious relics, primary artworks, the historic pipe organs, and three thirteenth-century rose windows to survive largely intact despite substantial smoke and toxic lead contamination.

The day after the disaster in 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron gave the country five years to rebuild the cathedral. To support the monumental endeavor, about 340,000 donors in more than 150 countries gave roughly 845 million euros. Teams of architects, specialized artisans, and manual laborers worked under a public body created by the French state to oversee the restoration to reconstruct the complex wooden roof and spire to historic standards. On 29 November 2024, President Macron, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo toured the completed interior, a week before the reopening.