French President Emmanuel Macron visited the cathedral’s restoration work this morning Notre Dame Cathedral and in which the restoration of the temple spire, destroyed in 2009, has been completed. Macron climbed the scaffolding installed for the work to the new spire, installed at the highest point, 96 meters high. He assured that the restoration was made possible thanks to the man responsible for the reconstruction until his death last August in a mountain accident in the Pyrenees, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, to whom he paid a brief tribute.

Regarding the spire, Macron specified that the rooster, which was part of the original spire destroyed in the 2019 fire and which could be restored and restored, will be installed in the coming days. And when asked about the controversial use of lead to refurbish a needle identical to the original, after local associations and environmental NGOs warned of health risks due to its polluting nature, he defended it.

He assured that “there was great demand in the matter of lead” and that during the work “all measures” necessary for the safety of workers were taken with “great professionalism every minute.” He added that the decisions to use lead again are “consistent” from an architectural point of view.

He also announced the creation of the Notre-Dame de Paris Museum, which will be located next to the cathedral, as well as the launch of a competition for contemporary artists to design stained glass windows for installation in the basilica.

Macron, who visited Notre-Dame just a year before it opened to the public, congratulated himself in statements to the media that “we have met the deadline” for reconstruction after the fire that destroyed the cathedral on April 15, 2019. He noted that the new “museum of Notre Dame’s works” will be located in the Hôtel Dieu, a hospital located a few tens of meters from the hotel, the air conditioning of which is being negotiated between the ministries of health and culture.

It will be a historical museum, but it will also tell the story of the various works and modifications that were carried out over time in this religious building, which before the fire was one of the most visited by tourists in Paris, numbering more than 12 million people. annually. At the same time, he indicated that a competition would be announced for contemporary artists to create six stained glass windows of the southern openings of Notre Dame Cathedral with figurative design, which would thus have a “sign of the 21st century.”