Notre Dame Cathedral is formally reopening its doors Saturday, more than five years after a devastating fire nearly destroyed the 861-year-old Gothic wonder at the center of the City of Lights.
Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris is expected to preside over the reopening with French President Emmanuel Macron and more than 1,500 invite-only guests, among them 50 heads of state, Prince William, first lady Jill Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, who made his first foreign trip since his presidential victory last month.
The event — the culmination of a painstaking, $760 million restoration project — is taking place on one of the Roman Catholic Church’s holiest days — the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the belief that Mary, to whom the cathedral is dedicated, was conceived without sin.
The rites of the reopening of the massive, ironwork-covered oak doors, which survived the fire, are expected to begin with the archbishop striking the closed door with his staff. In response, Psalm 121 was sung three times. “The cathedral, which had been silent, will once again resonate with the song of praise, and on the third time, the doors will open.”
The ceremonial door opening will be followed with a three-part service — which is to start with the “awakening of the great organ,” where the Archbishop blessed the massive instrument.
The organ, which dates back to the 1730s, survived the fire, but its 8,000 pipes each needed to be removed and cleaned, and the process to tune it back to the cathedral’s acoustics took about six months.
The organ awakening will be followed by a hymn, along with a psalm, the canticle “Magnificat,” followed by prayers for the world and “The Lord’s Prayer.”
To conclude, the Archbishop will give a final blessing, and then the Latin hymn “Te Deum,” will be sung, organizers said.
The 40-minute ceremony will unfold under intense security — “a ring of steel” surrounding the cathedral, including 6,000 police officers and soldiers and surface-to-air missiles and SAS-style anti-terrorist units present across the city.
Members of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, an elite police tactical unit, will deploy rooftop snipers and helicopter-borne rapid intervention teams.
And while the ceremony was invite-only, public viewing areas capable of holding 40,000 people are being set up on the Seine’s southern bank for the public to watch the two-day events on giant screens.
The first Mass celebrated since the fire will be held on Sunday morning, with around 3,000 invited guests in attendance.
The cathedral will open to the public at 6:30 p.m. local time Sunday.
As a show of unity, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops encouraged churches across the nation to peal their bells at 2 p.m.
There was speculation Pope Francis would attend the ceremony, but he publicly declined Macron’s invitation to attend during a September press conference. “I will not go to Paris!” he said at the time.
Gen. Arnaud de Cacqueray, the commander of the Paris fire brigade, is expected to attend the ceremonial reopening to represent the more than 400 heroic firefighters who spent 12 hours battling the April 15, 2019 fire that erupted in the attic below the wooden roof of the 226-foot cathedral, which consisted of centuries-old oak beams that been undergoing repair work at the time.
The damage from the fire was catastrophic — the medieval cathedral’s iconic 105-foot-tall spire collapsed and it was left with gaping holes in its roof.
The Paris prosecutor’s office found no evidence the fire was intentional.
Worldwide reaction was swift — nearly $1 billion was pledged in donations large and small to rebuild the cathedral in the days after the fire. About $62 million was donated by Americans to the restoration fund, according to the Friends of Notre Dame de Paris, which counted 10,500 donors from more than 50 countries, and roughly 2,000 craftspeople helped to rebuild it.
About $148 million from that pool remains for future repairs at the landmark, which took nearly 200 years to construct and was built in stages between the 12th and 14th centuries. Over its span, it’s been a site where history has been made, including the crowning of Henry VI in 1431 and the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804.
With the 1831 publication of Victor Hugo’s novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” came renewed interest in restoring its structure, a grand effort which took place between 1844 and 1864.
Before the fire, Notre Dame had not undergone any significant restoration in more than 150 years, and was in need of repair, which is why it was being renovated when the blaze erupted.
Visitors will see the cathedral’s religious relics and priceless artworks, which were salvaged by good Samaritans who formed a human chain to take out the precious items, including the Crown of Thorns, the wreath believed to have been placed on Jesus Christ’s head during his crucifixion, and the tunic of St. Louis, believed to have belonged to Louis IX, who was king of France from 1226-1270.
A series of 13 17th- and early 18th-century paintings known as the “Mays” were also rescued during the fire and are now back in the cathedral, along with a host of other treasures.
Other famed artwork, including statues dedicated to the 12 apostles and four Gospel writers, were fortunately removed days before the fire due to the ongoing restoration that sparked the blaze.
The famed rose windows also remained intact, as did the cathedral’s bells, which rang out across the city for the first time last month in anticipation of the reopening.
The cathedral attracted between 14 million to 15 million visitors each year prior to the fire, according to France’s Tourism Board.
