The French President, Emmanuel Macron has said that the Notre-Dame cathedral will be re-constructed and “even more beautifully” – he expects the work done in half a decade.
Destroying much of its roof and causing its steeple collapse, a massive fire on Monday ravaged the 850-year-old Gothic building. Officials say that the cathedral was just a few minutes away from total destruction.
However, reconstruction of the cathedral could take decades despite Mr Macron’s pledge, experts say.
Rémy Heitz, Paris public prosecutor said that the incident obviously didn’t indicate arson as the blaze is currently being treated as an accident. However, fifty people will still investigate the cause of the outbreak.
To help rebuild the Unesco World Heritage site, a combined €800m ($902m; £692m) has already been pledged by quite a number of companies, public figures and business tycoons.
On Tuesday evening, in a televised interview, President Macron suggested he wants the cathedral rebuilt by 2024, the time Paris hosts the Summer Olympics.
President Macron said, “We’ll rebuild Notre-Dame even more beautifully and I want it to be completed in five years, we can do it.” He had already pledged to initiate an international fundraising program for the reconstruction of the cathedral.
“It’s up to us to convert this disaster into an opportunity to come together… It’s up to us to find the thread of our national project.”
But the head of the foundation in charge of restoring the 1,000-year-old Strasbourg cathedral, Eric Fischer, has told AFP that the Notre-Dame may take “decades” to rebuild.
Frédéric Létoffé, the head of the group of companies for the Restoration of Historic Monuments, estimated 10 and 15 years as a timeframe to get the cathedral back to its original glamour, warning that a lot of work needed doing to secure the site before restoration can begin.