By Andrea Gagliarducci ACI Press
The Virgin returns to Notre Dame, with a novena that will touch the cathedral of Paris from 7 to 15 Novemberking. And it will be one of the last activities in the restored cathedral, which will reopen on December 8th. At the beginning of September, the bells of the Paris cathedral, hit by a fire on 15 April 2019, also returned.
The bells are back triumphantly at Notre Dame last September 12th, and were assembled in ten days of work. There are eight bells, two of which were damaged by the cathedral fire and have now been restored. They were hoisted, one by one, to the top of the north bell tower, at the height of the west gable. A delicate job during which the campanists had to juggle with techniques between archaism and modernity.
It was difficult work, because when the bell swings, its thrust force is such that the structure must support ten times the weight of the bell. It took a dozen craftsmen to reassemble the bells, and the top floor of the North tower was transformed into a real work laboratory, the bell ringers had to work by hand, with great organization. They also took care of every detail, even bringing back the statue of Anne Genevieve.
“We need to rethink the maneuver a bit like at the time of the construction of the cathedral and cross-reference this data with the modern lifting means at our disposal“, explains André Voegele. We must adapt and juggle modern means and the force of arms.”
The bells have been mounted one at a time, and now the ringing test is scheduled for November. Everything will be ready for December 8th, for the reopening of the cathedral.
