THE reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral has received the greenlight after fires engulfed its roof and sent its spire crashing through to the nave below more than two years ago.
The French government agency in charge of rebuilding said the structure was stable enough and secure to begin work.
The cathedral was set to be restored to its previous design, including the 96-metre spire designed by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in the mid-1800s.
This selection came as a relief to many in the community after dozens of new – and even some whacky – re-interpretations of the architecture were proposed but ultimately rejected.
Progress on reconstruction has also been slowed by the pandemic.
Lockdowns in France across 2020 kept workers at home and forced the doors of the cathedral to stay shut for the first Christmas Mass since 1803.
Even today, France is seeing thousands of COVID cases each day.
Anatomy of a national tragedy
To date, no exact cause of the fire has been identified.
Investigators are leaning towards a theory that the fire was probably caused during restoration work carried out at the time, with the most likely culprit either a cigarette or electrical equipment.
An inquiry also noted another theory that a series of temporary electronic bells rigged on wires running through the roof space could have short-circuited and ignited the blaze.
But once the fire had started at 6:18pm, valuable minutes were lost due to miscommunication from security staff and the fact that the fire alarm was not linked to the local fire department.
By the time firefighters arrived, the fire had taken hold of the roof.
Many firefighting tactics like waterbombing were abandoned for fear of further destroying the fragile contents of the cathedral.
At 7.50pm, the spire of the cathedral collapsed into the structure, creating a draft that slammed all the doors in the cathedral and sent a fireball through the attic.
The firefighters retreated from the attic and abandoned the roof in order to divert resources to the north tower.
The north tower held eight large, heavy bells.
Firefighters feared if the north tower became destabilised and the bells fell, the damage from their fall could bring down the tower and collapse the whole cathedral as a result.
While the fires burned, a human chain ferried irreplaceable religious artifacts out of the cathedral.
One firefighter and two police officers were injured before the fires were brought under control by 9.45pm.
Rebuilding an icon
Friends of Notre Dame had led the restoration of the cathedral over the two years since the fire broke out.
Their safety works included installing a massive tarp above the vaults to protect from rain, fortifying the north, south and west gables, especially to protect the three large rose windows, fortifying the most damaged pillars of the nave, reinforcing the flying buttresses, wrapping and protecting the gargoyles and other sculptural elements of the north and south towers and removing burnt and melted scaffolding that had previously surrounded the spire.
Once all of this was done, the rebuilders had to face a lumbering issue.
The 14th Century cathedral spire was built with timber far longer than is ordinarily used in modern construction.
In June, foresters felled 200-year-old oak trees to attain the 26-metre long logs required to rebuild the spire.
These trees came from a forest near Le Mans that in centuries past supplied the French naval shipwrights.
French President Emmanuel Macron had made a commitment to have the cathedral rebuilt for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Rebuilding is expected to begin in the coming months and cleaning is already underway.
