Notre Dame on track to reopen in 2024

The reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is going fast enough to allow its reopening to visitors and faithful at the end of 2024, less than six years after a fire ravaged its roof, French officials said Monday.

The cathedral’s spire, which collapsed in the blaze, will gradually start reappearing above the monument this year in a powerful signal of its revival, said Gen. Jean-louis Georgelin, the army general in charge of the project.

The reconstruction itself started last year, after more than two years of work to make the monument — a 12th-century Gothic masterpiece — stable and secure enough for artisans to start rebuilding it.

Georgelin said the cathedral will reopen in December 2024, in line with the goal set by President Emmanuel Macron just after the fire — but it will be too late for the Paris Olympic Games in the summer of 2024.

“My job is to be ready to open this cathedral in 2024. And we will do it,” Georgelin said.

Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak told the AP that this does not mean all the renovation will be finished then. “There will still be some renovation work going on in 2025,” she stressed.