The Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, a masterpiece of Gothic art destroyed by a fire that drew global attention in 2019, will be equipped with a unique fire-extinguishing system, French authorities announced on Wednesday.
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“All precautions have been taken to completely rethink the fire safety” of Notre-Dame de Paris, which must reopen to the public on December 8, 2024, explained Philippe Jost, who heads the public body responsible for the reconstruction.
The cathedral will be able to welcome “14 million visitors” a year once it reopens, two more than before the fire, Mr Jost added to the National Assembly's Culture Committee, which heard him.
The new fire suppression system includes a “fogging device deployed in the attic and spire to smother any possible fire outbreak – a first in a cathedral in France,” he said.
The tower, still surrounded by a forest of scaffolding, has reappeared in the Paris sky, crowned by its cross since December 6th.
AFP
On Saturday she will find her new rooster, which will be raised to the top after the blessing by the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr. Laurent Ulrich.
President Emmanuel Macron visited the construction site of Notre-Dame on December 8th, exactly a year to the day before the planned reopening of the cathedral, to which he plans to invite Pope Francis.
AFP
In addition, the construction work will continue “during the Olympic Games” in Paris in the summer of 2024, but public access to the three portals of the cathedral and the adjacent main street will be “guaranteed” in coordination with the police prefecture.
On April 15, 2019, a spectacular fire devastated the cathedral, whose spire designed by 19th-century architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc collapsed.
The legal investigation into the origin of the disaster is ongoing. At the end of the preliminary investigation, the route of the accident was favored.