Once the cathedral had been secured, the actual restoration could begin! Carefully prepared, it would enable Notre Dame to reopen for services and visitors in 2024.
To restore the splendor of this exceptional monument, a great variety of professions set to work with passion and talent inside the cathedral but also in workshops throughout France.
On 16 December 2023, the installation of the golden cockerel atop the spire, some 96 metres above ground level, marked the completion of the structural work. But it also marked the beginning of another phase of great symbolic significance: the return of the spire’s protective lead covering and its hundreds of ornaments, key to its unique appearance.
This program will enable the cathedral to reopen fully and definitively in 2024, once the essential damage caused by the fire has been repaired.
In September 2025, the removal of the scaffolding that had been used to cover the spire revealed the sixteen restored copper statues, which once again adorn the base of the spire.
Nearly 1,300 m3 of stone were required to restore the masonry destroyed by the fire. The search for stones compatible with the cathedral was an adventure in itself!
A thousand oak trees were required to reconstruct the spire and the frameworks of the transept exactly as they were before the fire, dating from Viollet-le-Duc's restoration in the 1860s. The annual harvest from French forests contains many times that number: but the right trees had to be found.
The presence of lead dust made it imperative to clean the whole interior of the cathedral, thus revealing its full splendor.
Collapsed or damaged by the fire, the vaults and masonry of Notre-Dame de Paris are being restored.
This is an emblematic part of the project: the reconstruction of the roofs and spire of Notre Dame de Paris restore the characteristic silhouette of the cathedral.
The great organ of Notre Dame will soon find its voice again after meticulous cleaning and careful restoration in workshops in the South of France and Nouvelle Aquitaine.
During his visit to the Notre-Dame de Paris work site on December 8, 2023, the French President announced his approval of the request made by Monsignor Laurent Ulrich, Archbishop of Paris, to install contemporary stained-glass windows depicting the Pentecost in six chapels along the cathedral’s south aisle. The project is progressing, confirming that the new windows will be installed in the cathedral by the end of 2026.
