On Friday May 3, Philippe Jost, President of the Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris public establishment, Philippe Villeneuve, Head Architect for Historic Monuments, and Mgr Ribadeau Dumas, Rector of the Cathedral, traveled to Normandy to announce the completion of the ironwork on the chevet cross and the significant progress made on the choir roof, alongside the teams from UTB, mandatary, Balas, Bourgeois and Coanus.
The chevet cross was the only part of the choir roof to survive the flames and has been restored in the Fer Art Forge workshops (Calvados). Its lead ornaments have been restored by the workshop’s ornamental specialists, including the dragon at the foot of the crosspole. The cross is a complex 12-meter-high structure weighing 1.5 tons, and will soon be returned to the cathedral’s choir, where roofing work began last February.
The ridge crests for the choir are also being built, thanks to an unprecedented combination of the skills of the workshop’s roofing and ornamental-masonry specialists, and the expertise of the engineers and the production facilities at the Lemer foundry (Loire-Atlantique). Each ridge measures 1 meter high by 1.10 meters wide and weighs almost 370 kg. They will be placed in their final position on the cathedral roof in a few weeks’ time.
The imminent return of the chevet cross and the installation of the ridge crests are important and symbolic milestones in the restoration process, marking a further step towards the reopening of Notre-Dame in December 2024.
Congratulations to everyone involved!
