Reopened: The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

DW (English)

After five years, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has been restored. Discover new interior details in all their splendor.

Transcript

00:00At last, five years after a devastating fire, the famous Notre-Dame Cathedral is finally reopening.

00:08Begun in 1163, the Notre-Dame de Paris, or Our Lady of Paris,

00:13is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture and holds a special place in millions of hearts.

00:19We have Notre-Dame today because of Victor Hugo's passion for it.

00:22I mean, the building wouldn't still be standing today if it wasn't for his passion for it and for architecture.

00:27And so he wrote Notre-Dame de Paris.

00:29The architecture, the design, the details of the structure, it just looks beautiful.

00:35This church is legendary, also because of all those Disney movies.

00:40It symbolizes the history of France and religion. It's got cult status.

00:46On April 15, 2019, disaster struck. Fire broke out inside the cathedral.

00:52The cause has still not been determined with absolute certainty.

00:56Large sections of the roof and interior were destroyed.

00:59An especially dramatic moment was the collapse of the spire, dating back to the 19th century.

01:05Marie-Hélène Didier remembers that day very well.

01:09As conservator of Notre-Dame, she was among the first to be informed.

01:13At first I couldn't believe it. Then I thought to myself,

01:17oh, it won't be all that bad, but I'll go over there anyway.

01:21When there on site, nobody knew how the fire had started,

01:24or how much time the firefighters would give us, or how many objects we could save.

01:29In a situation like that, you have no time to think. You just do whatever you can.

01:37The world looked on in horror. But Notre-Dame withstood the inferno.

01:42Most of the cathedral and its iconic façade were saved.

01:45The disaster unleashed a wave of both dismay and solidarity worldwide.

01:50Some 1,000 people have been working on the comprehensive restoration.

01:54The biggest challenge for all of us was to finish up on time.

01:58We had to follow a timetable. Everyone gave their best.

02:04The large-scale project included the restoration of the towering paintings,

02:08even though they hadn't been touched by the fire.

02:13They had been removed for the construction work,

02:16and it would have been unthinkable to put them back in the condition they were in.

02:19It would have been criminal to do nothing at all.

02:21They urgently needed to be restored.

02:27Now the world-renowned cathedral shines in its former glory, inside and out.

02:32The first images to be made public came from a video shot by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

02:38A number of objects were not restored, but remade.

02:42The cathedral's reopening was a good excuse to revamp the interior furnishings.

02:47For instance, we threw out the old seats and created new ones.

02:51It's meant to be a place of restoration, but also one of creation.

02:58The baptismal font and altar were designed by French sculptor Guillaume Bardet.

03:02He was chosen from 69 candidates. His style is minimalistic and modern.

03:10Every year, Notre-Dame is visited by some 15 million people.

03:14Many of them are not Christians or even religious.

03:17Even so, they find themselves in a sacred place.

03:20It's important for my creations to appeal to everyone.

03:27All the objects are made of dark bronze,

03:29in deliberate contrast to the stone and stained glass of the cathedral.

03:35We have a very significant building here that's been restored as faithfully as possible,

03:40except for some elements, like my furnishings.

03:43For them to be seen too, I had to come up with something different.

03:47So I made them out of bronze, and now they're noticeable.

03:53The doors of Notre-Dame will soon open for all,

03:56and the first mass will be celebrated in the restored house of worship.

04:02What happened was a traumatic experience for me,

04:05and it took me a long time to recover from it.

04:08But without the fire, we never would have been able to accomplish everything we've done.

04:13Now we have a restored cathedral with brand new interior furnishings.

04:18The new look is fabulous.

04:23All the restoration work won't be completed for another few years.

04:27But even with the cranes and scaffolding still surrounding it,

04:30Notre-Dame is more popular than ever,

04:33five years after it came so close to being lost forever.

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