A LONG-TERM BUILD
Rector: Notre Dame fix could take another ‘15 or 20 years’
Nearly two years after a devastating fire raged Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, its rector said that it could take up to two decades for the world-renowned landmark to be fully restored.
Both the building and its esplanade might remain under renovation for another “15 or 20 years,” Patrick Chauvet told The Associated Press on Friday
“I can guarantee that there’s work to do,” Chauvet said.
The blaze that engulfed the cathedral on April 15, 2019, shocked the world and damaged much of its structure.
Shortly after the fire, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild the burned-out cathedral, a symbol of national pride, in just a few years.
“We will rebuild Notre Dame even more beautifully and I want it to be completed in five years. We can do it,” Macron said at the time.
“It is up to us to convert this disaster into an opportunity to come together, having deeply reflected on what we have been and what we have to be and become better than we are. It is up to us to find the thread of our national project,” he added.
The bold plan had in mind a 2024 deadline, when Paris is set to host the Summer Olympics. However, French officials quickly reconsidered Macron’s statement, acknowledging that five years was unrealistic for such a massive task.
Chauvet spoke about his longer timeline after Good Friday ceremonies at Notre Dame’s temporary base, the nearby church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois.
A Holy Thursday service, celebrated a day earlier, was held at the fire-ravaged Notre Dame, the AP reported. Attendance was extremely reduced due to the ongoing construction and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, investigators said the 2019 blaze was “started by either a cigarette or a short circuit in the electrical system.”
Groundbreaking on the French Gothic cathedral took place in 1163. Its initial structure was completed in 1345, after 182 years.