PARIS — Five years after people wept as they watched a huge fire tear through Paris' iconic Notre Dame Cathedral, destroying the vaulted wooden ceiling and spire, the storied medieval landmark will reopen its doors once again in a weekend of celebration and ceremony.
Known in France as “la fléche,” or arrow, a rebuilt spire now stands proudly above the spectacularly restored Gothic masterpiece again — part of restoration work completed in just five years on a building that originally took nearly two centuries to build.
“It’s beautiful,” Parisian Tom Renaud told NBC News as he marveled at the restored cathedral on Friday, a day before the medieval building’s doors officially reopen for the first time since the blaze tore through it on April 15, 2019.
“It’s a symbol of France for all Parisians,” added Renaud, 30, as he and his wife, Lulu, looked on. With so many enthusiasts around the world, he said the revival felt “important for everyone.”
The couple were far from alone in trying to take in Notre Dame, French for “Our Lady.” Scores of people walked around the site as police watched on, and barricades were erected as preparations for Saturday evening’s reopening ceremony were well underway.
Hundreds of people are expected to descend upon L’île de la Cité for the celebration, which will also be attended by America’s first lady Jill Biden, Britain’s Prince William and President-elect Donald Trump, who will be making his first trip overseas since he won November’s election.
Under the luminous stained glass and next to the murals that have been restored to their original resplendent colors, they will be joined by nearly 50 heads of state and government and personalities at the “reawakening” service for the centuries-old cathedral.
Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich will lead the service, following an address from President Emmanuel Macron, who was met with ridicule the day after the fire when he vowed to rebuild the cathedral and see it reopened to the public by 2024.
The ceremony will likely provide a welcome respite from Macron’s domestic political woes in a week that saw him come under pressure to leave office following the resignation of his prime minister, Michel Barnier, who quit after lawmakers in the country’s National Assembly passed a no-confidence motion in the government.
Macron was expected to deliver his speech outside Notre Dame, but forecasts of strong winds spurred a last-minute change in plans, meaning most of Saturday’s events were to be moved inside the cathedral.
Ulrich will knock on the door of Notre Dame three times with a staff crafted from charred wood salvaged from the cathedral’s fire-ravaged roof. He will be met with a rising tide of choir song after each knock, before the doors finally swing open.
The cathedral’s thunderous organ, its 8,000-pipes painstakingly restored and cleaned of toxic dust, will also respond to the archbishop’s invocation, with four organists playing a variety of melodies.
A new altar and golden cross have been also installed, while fire doors and sprinklers are a modern addition. The Crown of Thorns, said to be the wreath placed on Jesus Christ’s head during his crucifixion, and one of the cathedral’s most sacred items, will sit in a sparkling reliquary.
Ariel Weil, the mayor of Paris Center, said “a page has been turned and we’re closing that chapter” on the historic building.
Weil said he was among the first to arrive at the scene of the fire after he saw a string of fire trucks racing toward the cathedral, adding that he was shocked to see the flames.
“Something rained down on us. It was some debris. To this day I’m not exactly sure what it was,” he said, adding that he implored onlookers and local residents to move away from the site to safety.
Helpless, like thousands of Parisians and tourists that night, he looked on as the inferno swept through one of the most recognizable sights in the French capital.
For Emily MacKinnon, a self-described Notre Dame superfan who moved to Paris from the Canadian city of London to be closer to the famed cathedral, it was “worst day of my life.”
But she said “for the size and scale of that fire, we could have lost so much more than the roof and the spire.”
The 29-year-old, who plans to attend the opening ceremony, said she was filled with gratitude about the restoration of the cathedral, which she fell in love with as a fourth grader when she wrote a school project about it.
Seeing the “Notre-Dame de Paris” musical onstage for the first time cemented that passion, and she said she has collected more than a thousand pieces of Notre Dame memorabilia.
“It’s just been, like, everything — my whole life has been Notre Dame,” said MacKinnon, who now runs her own tour company around the cathedral.
Dressed in her everyday attire — a Notre Dame T-shirt, necklace and bracelet with her arms covered in similarly themed tattoos — MacKinnon said it’s the passion the cathedral inspires around the world that led her to fall in love with it.
Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “Notre-Dame de Paris,” or “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” which not only immortalized the cathedral’s story, but spared it from destruction by inspiring a major restoration of the site, had also fueled her passion, she added.
“We would not have the building today without Victor Hugo’s passion for the building itself,” she said. “I like to think I share that passion.”
That passion is shared by many of the hundreds of workers, from architects and stonemasons to art historians and anthropologists, who have come together over the past five years to help restore the cathedral to its former glory.
For Hank Silver, a carpenter from Massachusetts who is one of dozens of Americans to have worked on the cathedral’s restoration, Notre Dame’s reopening will be “bittersweet.”
“The roof frame feels like my little baby and now it’s kind of grown up and going out into the world,” said Silver, 42. “But at the same time, you know, this is what we’ve been working for.”
Looking out at the cathedral across from Pont de la Tournelle, Silver noted how “rare” an experience it was to have so many tradespeople from different walks of life working together all at once on a yearslong project that has inspired unique and long-lasting bonds.
“It has been an absolutely beautiful thing to witness and to be a part of,” Silver said. But he noted the work is far from over, with restoration efforts expected to continue in the years ahead.
Still, Silver said, a miraculous experience awaits those who flocked to Paris to witness the cathedral’s unveiling.
“Visitors,” he added, “will be completely blown away by just how beautiful it is inside.”
