MACRON PROMISES NOTRE-DAME WILL BE REBUILT IN FIVE YEARS
France will ask architects to compete for the opportunity to design cathedral’s restoration
In what was described as a “French moonshot”, President Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild Notre-Dame within five years, but the breakneck pace required triggered doubts the cathedral could be restored in so short a time.
In a wide-ranging televised speech on Tuesday, Mr Macron said the 19th-century spire, vaulting and two thirds of the cathedral’s roof would be completed in time for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
The landmark was gutted by a fire on Monday evening, prompting an outpouring of grief for the 12th-century building.
Firefighters are still examining damage and shoring up the structure after the blaze brought down the cathedral’s spire and roof.
“We will rebuild the cathedral to be even more beautiful and I want it to be finished within five years,” Mr Macron said.
But the tight timetable seemed unrealistic to some experts.
Prominent French conservation architect Pierluigi Pericolo told Les Inrockuptibles magazine it could take three times that long.
“No less than 15 years ... it’s a colossal task,” he said.
Mr Pericolo worked on the restoration of the 19th-century Saint-Donatien basilica, which was badly damaged by fire in 2015 in the western French city of Nantes.
He said it could take between “two to five years” merely to check the stability of Notre-Dame. But Jack Lang, a prominent former culture minister, said the state must complete the project within as little as three years.
“I hear since yesterday that it will take a decade – it’s a joke. We must give ourselves a short deadline, as we have done in the past for exceptional projects,” he said.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced that architects from around the world will be given the opportunity to compete to design the restoration of Notre-Dame – a move that could pave the way for the look of the building to change radically for the first time since the mid-19th century.
The brief is for experts to decide if the 90-metre spire should be restored identically, or to “give Notre-Dame a new spire that is adapted to the techniques and the challenges of our era”, Mr Philippe said in Paris yesterday.
Donors – from prominent business people to ordinary citizens – have so far pledged more than €800 million (Dh3.31 billion) to support the restoration effort.
The likely cost of the renovation was not known, Mr Philippe said. The Walt Disney Company was the latest in a string of benefactors to declare support, pledging $5 million (Dh18.3m) to the cause.
Mr Philippe also tweeted about the “historical responsibility” his government bore to ensure the restoration is done correctly.
“The president of the republic has expressed an ambition, that of rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris in five years. This is obviously a huge challenge. A historical responsibility.
“The construction of our generation for the generations that will succeed us,” he said.
In Tuesday’s speech, Mr Macron drew a parallel between political unrest in his country and the fate of the cathedral.
“I profoundly believe that it is up to us to transform this catastrophe into an opportunity to come together and think about what we were and what we need to become, to improve ourselves,” he said.
The Yellow Vest protests have dragged on for almost six months. Originally a protest over fuel taxes, it grew to include grievances about wider issues.
In February, French MPs passed a bill to curb violence in cities across the country.
The bill bans protesters from hiding their faces, gives police greater powers to extract people from demonstrations and gives local authorities the right to ban individual protesters.
Meanwhile, extremists have tried to capitalise on the Notre-Dame fire, using social media to promote messages of hate and make threats.
Online platforms have failed to stop the spread of misinformation, despite promises in the aftermath of terrorist attacks to curb fake news and material that fuels the sense of crisis around major events.
The SITE monitoring group picked up messages from the ISIS-linked Al-Muntasir group with a poster of the blazing cathedral accompanied by the words: “Have a good day.”
The channel previously published videos that celebrated the 2015 terrorist attacks in France.
The cathedral was targeted in 2016 by the driver of a vehicle laden with gas canisters but the attack was foiled. Three people were arrested.
French officials have so far ruled out a terrorist motive but have questioned about 30 people in connection with the blaze. Most were builders and others involved in existing renovation work.
Sixty Paris firefighters remain at the scene.
The service says the cathedral’s rose windows are in good shape but that their support structures are at risk.
Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said the most likely cause of the blaze was an accident and that 50 people had been assigned to the complex investigation.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo said that an exhibition would be set up to tell the story of the cathedral over the course of the works.
The cathedral’s rector, Bishop Patrick Chauvet, said it would be closed to worshippers and visitors for five to six years.