Restoration work on the Notre Dame Cathedral is nearing completion five years after the devastating fire.
On Friday, the bells of Paris’s iconic Notre Dame Cathedral rang together for the first time since the 2019 fire that severely damaged the historic landmark.
The chimes from the cathedral’s eight northern belfry bells resounded one month before the cathedral is set to reopen to the public following extensive restoration. Philippe Jost, head of the government agency overseeing the cathedral’s restoration, called it a “beautiful, significant, and symbolic step.”
The largest bell, “Gabriel,” weighs over four tons, while the smallest, “Jean-Marie,” weighs 800 kilograms. The bells sounded individually at 9:30 a.m. local time (10:30 CET) before uniting in harmonious resonance, as reported by AFP. The fire on April 15, 2019, shocked not only France but much of the world, causing extensive damage to the UNESCO World Heritage site.
French President Emmanuel Macron quickly set an ambitious goal to restore Notre Dame within five years and make it “even more beautiful” than before, AFP notes.
Approximately 250 companies and hundreds of experts were mobilized for the restoration, with costs totaling hundreds of millions of euros.
