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A leak in the French media suggested the rebuilding of the interior of the cathedral is tilting towards a more contemporary style, but the Archdiocese of Paris insists no decision will be made before the end of March.PARIS, France — Six months after the end of a long and fierce controversy surrounding the terms for the rebuilding of the roof and spire of Notre-Dame, a new national outcry has erupted after part of the rebuilding project for the interior of the monument, severely damaged by the 2019 blaze, was leaked to the press. Indeed, according to an article by Le...

Farid Ikken, an Algerian, had pledged allegiance to Daesh before his act The Paris Special Assize Court on Wednesday sentenced Farid Ikken to twenty-eight years in prison for attacking police officers with a hammer and wounding one of them in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral in June 2017, after pledging allegiance to Daesh. The 43-year-old Algerian student, whose sentence comes with a two-thirds security period, was also sentenced to a permanent ban from French territory. The Special Assize Court of Paris followed the requisitions of the Advocate General, who had called for severely punishing a man who she said had become...

CNA Staff, Sep 23, 2020 / 12:00 am MT (CNA).- After fire toppled the iconic spire and destroyed the roof of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France in April 2009, heated debates ensued about whether the reconstruction should use the church’s original design, or use a more modern design and technique. Some proposed futuristic ideas included a rooftop swimming pool and a greenhouse atop the 850-year-old cathedral. Last year, the French Senate passed a bill mandating that Notre-Dame be rebuilt as it was before the fire, with lumber and medieval carpentry techniques, which were highlighted in a public demonstration...

The spire of Notre Dame cathedral, which was destroyed in a fire last April, will be restored according to the original Gothic design. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the decision, putting an end to speculation that the spire would be rebuilt in a modern style. Mr Macron had previously hinted he was in favour of a "contemporary gesture". However he has said he wants the restoration to be completed by 2024, when Paris is hosting the Olympics. The Elysée said Mr Macron's main concern was "not delaying the reconstruction and making it complicated - things had to be cleared up...

Anyone hoping to see the Notre Dame's fire-wrecked spire rise from the ashes as a gleaming, ultra-modern version of its former self may be set for disappointment. France's new culture minister Roselyne Bachelot has weighed into one of the country's most contentious national debates by declaring that Notre Dame should be rebuilt to look "identical" to how it did before last year's blaze. Speaking on French radio Thursday morning, just days after assuming her government post, Bachelot said that there was "broad consensus" that the cathedral's roof and spire should not undergo a contemporary redesign. "A broad consensus is emerging...

While the spire did not survive - it crashed down at the height of the conflagration - the scaffolding did. In fact in the intense heat, a lot of it melted and became attached to the building, like a great metal parasite. Now begins the exceedingly delicate operation of cutting away this metal, all 20 tons of it. The damaged scaffolding has been surrounded with yet more scaffolding, and an enormous crane has been brought in. Teams hanging from ropes 40 to 50 metres (130-164ft) in the air will be using electric saws to carve away the encrusted material piece...

Investigators still don't have access to the area where the fire beganOne year ago today, the world watched in horror as a fire swept through Paris’s iconic Notre Dame Cathedral, sending its spire crumbling to the ground, caving in its ceiling, and setting alight its historic interior. And now, with the country on lockdown, restoration efforts on the Gothic building have been put on hold, forcing a team of 100 engineers, scientists, architects, and archeologists to cease their tireless work on the damaged structure. The target date for completing the complex and delicate restoration has always been 2024, in time...

Paris, France, Apr 14, 2020 / 11:01 pm (CNA).- For Fr. Pierre Amar, Notre-Dame de Paris has always been a masterpiece, “the very example of supreme beauty,” but now the Marian cathedral is also “a great burnt victim.” One year after the fire destroyed much of the cathedral’s roof and spire, the French priest shared what the cathedral of Paris has meant and continues to mean for Catholics in France as the country again faces a crisis. “Notre-Dame is a great lady of history. She has lived through centuries, eras, perils, and war. She has sustained the nation in its...

Social restrictions and lockdown measures in France due to the coronavirus have pushed reconstruction for Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral even further, despite already running months behind schedule. The prized Parisian church became engulfed in flames on April 15, 2019, resulting in the collapse of its iconic spire and significant damage to one of its landmark towers. It has been suspected that an electrical short circuit or a cigarette butt caused the fire that began in the attic of the structure. “The restoration phase will no doubt begin during 2021,” said Monsignor Patrick Chauvet... Work on the building had been slated...

PARIS, France - Still damaged and scarred by fire, Notre Dame Cathedral came back to life - if only for a fleeting instant - as a center for prayer on Friday in a Paris locked down against the coronavirus. Just days before the first anniversary of the April 15, 2019, inferno that ravaged the beloved Paris landmark, the French capital’s archbishop led Good Friday celebrations unlike any that have gone before inside the centuries-old jewel of Gothic architecture. Archbishop Michel Aupetit and three clergymen who accompanied him wore hard hats as they entered the damaged cathedral that is closed to...

Paris, France, Apr 7, 2020 / 07:00 am (CNA).- One year after the world watched the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris burn, the Archbishop of Paris will display the relic of Christ’s crown of thorns for veneration during a Good Friday broadcast. “When Mary is at the foot of the cross, she knows that from the most absolute evil God can always draw a much greater good," Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris said in an online press conference on April 7. “I do not see any meaning in the cathedral fire or the COVID-19 epidemic. On the other hand, I...

President Donald Trump has expressed his faith in the reconstruction effort now underway in Paris to revive the Notre Dame cathedral, stating its completion would give “glory to God” and fill millions of people “with wonder and awe”. The comments came during President Trump’s keynote speech at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland Tuesday. Following wide-ranging remarks on the strengths of the U.S. economy under his leadership, rising employment, and spreading global trade, the President moved to how the world should work to strengthen civilisation itself. Referring to Notre Dame in Paris, which lost much of its...

French architects want the roof of the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral to be rebuilt in wood and not in metal or concrete. Advertising One of the heads of the country’s biggest architects’ body said reconstructing the roof in anything other than the original wood would be a mistake. The intervention by Eric Wirth of the Guild of French Architects comes amid controversy over French President Emmanuel Macron’s wish for the spire of the 13th-century monument to be given a “contemporary” touch. “The most modern and ecological material today is wood,” Wirth said Wednesday, which, as well as being more fire-resistant than...

The French general overseeing the reconstruction of fire-devastated Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is not saved yet because there’s still a risk its vaulted ceilings might collapse. Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin told French broadcaster CNews on Sunday that “the cathedral is still in a state of peril” after last year’s fire, which destroyed its roof and toppled its 300-foot, 750-ton spire as the cathedral was undergoing renovations. “Notre Dame is not saved because ... there is an extremely important step ahead, which is to remove the scaffolding that had been built around the spire” before the fire, he said....

The restoration of the Paris cathedral has reached a critical stage, in which steel beams need to be installed to stabilize the structure and a tower of scaffolding fused in the fire in April has to be removed. The scaffolding, which was erected before the blaze, must be treated for lead contamination before specialists—suspended aloft by ropes—can cut it away. Once this perilous step is complete, they will construct a temporary roof, called the “grand parapluie” (or large umbrella), over the nave. No final decision has yet been made about the design of the cathedral’s lost spire.

PARIS (AP) — The rector of Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is still so fragile that there’s a “50% chance” the structure might not be saved, because scaffolding installed before this year’s fire is threatening the vaults of the Gothic monument. Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said restoration work isn’t likely to begin until 2021 — and described his “heartache” that Notre Dame couldn’t hold Christmas services this year, for the first time since the French Revolution. “Today it is not out of danger,” he told The Associated Press on the sidelines of Christmas Eve midnight Mass in a nearby...

The rector of Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is still so fragile that there’s a “50% chance” the structure might not be saved, because scaffolding installed before this year’s fire is threatening the vaults of the Gothic monument. Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said restoration work isn’t likely to begin until 2021 — and described his “heartache” that Notre Dame couldn’t hold Christmas services this year, for the first time since the French Revolution. “Today it is not out of danger,” he told The Associated Press on the sidelines of Christmas Eve midnight Mass in a nearby church. “It will...

PARIS - Notre Dame kept Christmas going even during two world wars - a beacon of hope amid the bloodshed. Yet, an accidental fire in peacetime finally stopped the cathedral from celebrating Midnight Mass this year, the first time in over two centuries. As the lights stay dim in the once-invincible 855-year-old Paris landmark, officials are trying hard to focus on the immediate task of keeping burnt-out Notre Dame’s spirit alive in exile through service, song and prayer. It has decamped its rector, famed statue, liturgy and Christmas celebrations to a new temporary home pending the restoration works, just under...

It has decamped its rector, famed statue, liturgy and Christmas celebrations to a new temporary home pending the restoration works, just under a mile away, at another Gothic church in Paris called Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois. And there it will remain, as works slowly progress to rebuild the cathedral after the April 15 fire destroyed its lead roof and spire and was moments away from engulfing its two stone towers. “This is the first time since the French Revolution that there will be no midnight Mass (at Notre Dame),” cathedral rector Patrick Chauvet told The Associated Press. Cathedral officials carefully chose Saint-Germain...

Paris, France, Nov 15, 2019 / 12:35 am (CNA).- Tensions are reportedly running high between French authorities overseeing the rebuilding of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, as they create plans to rebuild the church damaged by fire earlier this year. Army General Jean-Louis Georgelin and the architect on the project, Philippe Villeneuve, disagree over whether the cathedral's new spire should look modern or medieval, the BBC reports. Georgelin, at a meeting of the French National Assembly's cultural affairs committee late Wednesday, reportedly told the architect that he should “shut his mouth” over the spire’s design, adding that a final decision on...