A year after the blaze, Notre-Dame restoration is on pause because of the coronavirus lockdown
PARIS - A year after an inferno engulfed Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, salvage and reconstruction works are running months behind schedule, delayed by massive quantities of toxic lead, winter storms and now the coronavirus pandemic.
Flames tore through the oak-framed roof and consumed its spire as Parisians lined the banks of the Seine and millions around the world watched in horror. That work had been slated for the autumn, but was delayed by an investigation into the dispersal of clouds of poisonous lead during the blaze and then by a series of winter storms.
Only seven people attended the service in the apse behind the Pieta due to the lockdown but many more watched on television.Even as Notre-Dame still smoldered, Macron promised it would be rebuilt “even more beautifully” within five years. The delays have dealt a reality check to the president’s ambitions.“What’s important is that we can breathe life back into the cathedral, that the archbishop can return, that we can pray inside once more and sing a beautiful Te Deum,” the rector said.
So far, only about a fifth of the more-than 900 million euros pledged to help finance Notre-Dame’s restoration have been received, though officials are confident commitments will be upheld.
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