600 Tons of Scaffolding and Medieval Oak Beams: Notre Dame’s Restoration Enters Its Final Year

• Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was set to reopen to the public on December 8, 2024, one year after this milestone
• Oak beams made with medieval carpentry techniques were lifted into place for the new roof
• The rebuilt spire rose behind 600 tons of scaffolding
• The diocese planned to hire about 50 full-time staff for an expected 15 million visitors a year

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris marked a milestone on December 8, 2023: exactly one year before its planned reopening to the public, more than four years after the fire of April 15, 2019, the Associated Press reported in a story carried by the Jamaica Observer. French President Emmanuel Macron was due to visit the site to see stonemasons, carpenters and hundreds of other craftspeople at work.

The rebuilding had come a long way. Large oak beams, made using medieval carpentry techniques, had been lifted into place so the cathedral could be re-roofed, and the rebuilt spire again pointed skyward behind 600 tons of scaffolding. The name of retired General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who led the restoration until his death that August, was to be carved into the spire’s wood. The exterior spire and roof were expected to look finished by the opening of the Paris Olympic Games on July 26, 2024.

Work continued inside. The cathedral’s 8,000-pipe grand organ, France’s largest musical instrument, survived the fire but had to be dismantled, cleaned of toxic lead dust and reassembled. The rector, Rev Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, said Notre Dame may not be the largest or most beautiful cathedral but “it is the incarnation of a nation’s soul”, and called the preparations “a magnificent sign of hope”. Choir conductor Henri Chalet said: “Five years is very long.”

Staffing also had to be rebuilt. With the cathedral closed, its workforce had been cut to seven employees, and the diocese planned to hire about 50 full-time workers the following year to serve an expected 15 million visitors and worshippers a year.

Notre Dame shows what restoring a historic church after disaster involves: specialist trades, traditional materials, contamination clean-up and a fixed deadline, followed by the cost of staffing a reopened building. Jamaica’s old churches, many damaged by recent hurricanes, face the same questions on a smaller scale. Should damaged buildings be rebuilt as they were or modernised? Who holds the skills for stone, timber and lime work? And how will the finished building pay its way? Visitor numbers of the kind Notre Dame expects are not realistic here, but heritage tourism, weddings and concerts can help historic Jamaican churches earn income once they are restored.

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