Notre-Dame de Paris is also disconcerted. The cathedral square, closed to the public since the cathedral fire more than a year ago, reopened this Sunday, more than a year after the cathedral fire, a “symbol” hailed by the government , mayor, diocese of Paris and onlookers.
“It is a very important moment that this reopening of the forecourt which has been awaited for a year”, and was delayed “both because of lead pollution and then questions of confinement”, greeted the Minister of Culture Franck Riester, who came to mark this “very beautiful symbol”. “Notre-Dame is the soul of Paris”, “she is beautiful, she is there, she held out” and “it is almost a form of rebirth today”, added the mayor PS Anne Hidalgo in front of the press, just in front of the facade of the building illuminated by the sun.
Beside them the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Michel Aupetit, saw in the opening on the day of Pentecost “an extraordinary sign”, “like a liberation”. For the rector of the cathedral, Bishop Patrick Chauvet, “the Holy Spirit must have breathed: it has driven everything away, lead and the virus! “
After the fire of April 15, 2019, the forecourt and rue du Parvis were closed immediately due to the
lead pollution, which melted in particular when the arrow disappeared.
Regular cleaning
After a “favorable opinion” from the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency on Friday, the Paris police prefect authorized the reopening of the two places, they added, specifying that samples and regular cleaning will be performed.
At 3 p.m., Archbishop Michel Aupetit, Archbishop of Paris, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who chairs the Etablissement public de Notre-Dame, will be on hand to mark this reopening, they said. AFP.
Work to secure the burnt Notre-Dame, suspended in mid-March due to coronavirus, must resume very gradually, with the ambition to revive the cathedral by 2024.
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