PARIS — Notre Dame Cathedral stands crippled and isolated, locked in a dangerous web of warped metal scaffolding one year after a devastating fire gutted its interior, toppled its famous spire and horrified the world.
Some of the 40,000 bars — erected for an earlier renovation project — melted in the intense blaze on April 15, 2019. The unstable scaffolding now endangers the Gothic jewel that for many embodies the soul of France.
The restoration of the landmark from the 12th and 13th centuries has been halted and the workers sent home because of France’s coronavirus lockdown that began March 17, thwarting plans to start removing the 250 tons of scaffolding.
So even Notre Dame has been left in isolation by the pandemic that has affected so many people across France.
But its 13-ton bell in the south tower, named Emmanuel, sounded at 8 p.m. Wednesday night. A man wearing a mask and white protective clothing pulled a rope attached to its enormous clapper. The sounding of the bell joined the nightly applause from balconies to honor overstretched health workers.
On Good Friday, Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit led an exceptional but tiny gathering inside the church, at the foot of the huge golden cross that remains intact.
“Today, we stand in this half-fallen cathedral to say that life is still here,” Aupetit said in the televised ceremony.
The gathering in the fragile church was meant to raise the spirits of a nation in distress.
“The message of hope is especially important for our compatriots at a time when we are particularly affected by the coronavirus, which is sowing anguish and death,” the archbishop told reporters.
There was no Easter service and no formal plans to mark the anniversary of the fire. But the musicians of Notre Dame have created a virtual homage to their beloved cathedral with a performance from their homes of an extract of J.S. Bach’s “St. John Passion.”
French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated Wednesday his desire to see the cathedral reopen its giant doors in time for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
