Museum, contemporary stained glass windows… What Emmanuel Macron plans for Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral

Visiting the construction site at Notre-Dame de Paris, Emmanuel Macron announced this Friday, December 8 that a competition for contemporary stained glass windows would be organized to install them on the walls of the chapel, one year to the day before the planned reopening of the cathedral , ravaged by a fire in 2019.

A true master builder. Construction helmet screwed on his head and safety shoes on his feet, Emmanuel Macron climbed to the top of the spire of the newly installed Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, a proud smile on his face. One year before the reopening of the monument, the President of the Republic welcomed: “We meet deadlines, he said in the nave of the cathedral. It’s a fantastic image of hope and of a France that knows how to rebuild.”

On a visit to ensure the successful completion of the ambitious reconstruction schedule for the building, which is due to reopen on December 8, 2024, the Head of State spoke “a moment that is both important and moving” which testifies to “advancement” of “this project which seemed impossible”. Symbolically, Emmanuel Macron gave the last stroke of the chisel to the inscription, in the wood of the arrow, of the name of “his general”, Jean-Louis Georgelin, whom he had initially charged with carrying out this titanic project and who died last summer. “The general was known and loved on this site and we know what we owe him”slipped his successor Philippe Jost.

The question had agitated heritage lovers: should the work of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc be reconstructed, the cathedral identically after its partial destruction caused by a devastating fire in 2019? Yes, it had been cut. But the Archbishop of Paris, Monsignor Laurent Ulrich, had, in a letter addressed to the Elysée, confirmed his “wish” to see the State order “a series of six stained glass windows for the south side chapels of the nave”.

Wearing “the brand of the 21st century”

“I fully subscribe to it”replied Emmanuel Macron on Friday, emphasizing that it would be a question of bringing “the brand of the 21st century” in this gem of Gothic art. It was therefore with great fanfare that he announced the launch of a competition for the creation of “six stained glass windows” contemporaries.

“It is with my full agreement that we are going to launch a competition which will allow contemporary artists to submit, on the basis of an order which will be placed, a figurative work”he added. “The century which is ours will have its place among several others which appear in the works of this cathedral.” These new stained glass windows will replace works by Viollet-le-Duc, which will be preserved and exhibited in a new museum, “the museum of the work of Notre-Dame”.

This one will take up residence in “the premises of the Hôtel-Dieu” a stone’s throw from the Île de la Cité. It will be “at the same time a history museum, an art museum, a museum which will also describe the permanent construction site of Notre-Dame de Paris”, continues the President. It will therefore be in this new museum that the old stained glass windows, contemporary with Viollet-le-Duc, will be placed alongside the rooster who fell in April 2019 in the collapse of the spire.

Reinstalled, the new spire should now be covered in lead, like the roof. A choice that continues to create controversy. Environmentalist senator Anne Souyris, former deputy for health of the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, called on Tuesday on the social network “suspend the construction site while a health authority decides on the risks of its more than 400 tonnes of lead”.

“It’s a good decision,” “taking into account health constraints but also on an architectural level” because of his “consistency”defended Emmanuel Macron this Friday, ensuring that the prefect of the Ile-de-France region had “conducted the studies himself”.