As firefighters doused the embers of the blaze that threatened to destroy Notre Dame Cathedral on 16 April 2019, Emmanuel Macron promised the church would be restored “more beautiful than ever” within five years.
In two weeks, the French president will visit the monument that has been returned to its former glory with the help of millions in donations and hundreds of specialist artisans using age-old skills.
His visit will come days before the cathedral is officially opened on 7 December in an international ceremony at which Macron will make a short speech from the courtyard outside the cathedral, maintaining France’s 1905 law outlining the separation of church and state.
“This speech will be addressed to all French people,” the Élysée Palace said on Wednesday. “It will be a republican and secular moment before a religious and musical moment in Notre-Dame”.
The 7 December ceremony to which 2,000 people have been invited will be broadcast around the world. The Élysée said donations “had come from a large number of countries, not all of which have a Christian tradition”. It will be followed by a mass the next day.
After the president’s speech, Monsignor Laurent Ulrich, the archbishop of Paris, wearing vestments designed by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, will mark the official reopening of the cathedral by banging on the main door with his crozier. He will then “wake up” the grand organ in what was described as a “verbal and musical exchange”. A Magnificat by Bach will be sung followed by a Te Deum.
On Friday this week, a 14th-century near-lifesize statue of the Virgin Mary first placed in the cathedral in 1818 that survived the fire will be paraded through the streets of Paris before being returned to its place in the monument.
During the first week after its reopens, until 15 December, the cathedral will be open to the public until 10pm. Because of the number of visitors expected anyone wishing to enter will need to make a reservation, either the evening before or the day of their visit, through the cathedral’s website or a new app to be released soon.
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In the aftermath of the 2019 fire, millions of euros were pledged in donations to restore the cathedral. About €500m (£416m) has been spent in the last five years. Philippe Jost, who has overseen the project, said a surplus of about €140m would be used for future preservation work on the 861-year-old building, which he said “was not in a very good state even before the fire”.