By Isabella Kwai
The bronze bells of Notre-Dame Cathedral have not pealed together since 2019, when a furious blaze consumed the centuries-old landmark before the eyes of horrified Parisians.
For Paris, they tolled once again on Friday (Saturday AEDT).
A bell is seen before its installation in Notre-Dame, ahead of the cathedral’s grand reopening.Credit: AP
The sound of eight bells rang throughout the city for the first time in five years, a sign of the cathedral’s rebirth as it prepares to reopen to the public next month.
A weekend of ceremonies from December 7 will celebrate the reopening after an ambitious and expensive effort to rebuild the 860-year-old structure.
“It’s not perfect yet, but we will make it perfect,” Alexandre Gougeon, who was in charge of reinstalling the bells, told Agence France-Presse. “This first test was a success.”
The eight bells in the northern belfry, a key part of the cathedral’s collection of 21 bronze bells, had been cleaned before they were replaced in the tower. Videos taken by AFP inside the cathedral showed them swinging in the cathedral’s newly rebuilt northern belfry.
The April 2019 fire spread through the cathedral, collapsing its spire.Credit: Getty Images
A symbol of France’s modern history will join them: three new bells, including one that was rung during the Paris Olympic Games, have also been installed.
Investigators have still not determined the cause of the fire that ravaged the cathedral in April 2019, although leading theories include an electrical short-circuit and a discarded cigarette. Thousands of Parisians watched aghast from the banks of the Seine as firefighters battled to contain the flames, which destroyed much of the cathedral’s roof and toppled its spire but ultimately spared the main structure.
In the aftermath, President Emmanuel Macron vowed the cathedral would be rebuilt within five years, and more than €850 million ($1.3 billion) in donations poured in within days.
Hundreds of people – architects, engineers, masons, metalworkers, carpenters and more – have laboured at the construction site to meet the five-year target. The work has included rebuilding the collapsed spire, making a new wooden attic and cleaning more than 450,000 square feet (4645 square metres) of stone surfaces that had been darkened by soot, dust and lead particles.
The cathedral, an example of medieval Gothic architecture, had become synonymous with the history of France itself. It was where Henry VI of England in 1431 was made king of France, where Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804 was crowned emperor, and where Charles de Gaulle led a thanksgiving ceremony in 1944 after the liberation of Paris during World War II.
The dulcet peals of Notre-Dame’s bells accompanied some of that history, marking daily time for generations of Parisians. Many of the bells, given their own names, have been recast and remade over the years.
The largest of the bells, located in the south tower, dates to the 17th century and has been rung at some of the most important events in French history, including both world wars.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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