Notre Dame’s reopening celebrated its saviors as much as the cathedral’s resurrection from fire

PARIS (AP) — The reopening ceremonies for Notre Dame were as much a celebration of people as they were a rejoicing at the cathedral’s resurrection from fire.

Outside, the Catholic faithful shivered and prayed in the cold and the rain — and yet were ecstatic and said they wouldn’t rather have been anywhere else.

Inside, fire officers proudly soaked up a standing ovation from the congregation and French President Emmanuel Macron’s thanks from a grateful nation.

Largely unheralded, workers and artisans who resurrected skills from medieval times made it all possible, laboring day and night to meet what had seemed an impossible five-year deadline set by Macron to get Notre Dame back on its feet.

From 340,000 donors, big and small, 846 million euros (US$895 million) poured in from more 150 countries after the 2019 inferno to fund the rebuild.

Together, all those who helped and all those who prayed proved that it’s the people who cherish and venerate buildings like Notre Dame that keep them alive, making them more than inanimate examples of human history, architecture, and culture.

Hear what some of those people had to say this weekend about Notre Dame’s journey from darkness to light and their role in it.

The believer

For Corinne Lo Sardo, who works for Air France and lives in the Paris region, Notre Dame “is a woman. Untouchable.”

“She represents the verb ‘to love,’” the 57-year-old said, standing outside in the cold. “I venerate the stones, I venerate the history, I venerate what she represents.’

She spoke about the April 15, 2019, fire and the pain it caused her as though it was yesterday.

“I was on the floor, as if I was being whipped by the flames. I was crying,” she said. “We weren’t sure she would survive.”

Unable to take part in the invite-only inaugural Mass on Sunday, Lo Sardo followed the service on a giant screen outside, seemingly oblivious to the rain pattering on her umbrella and the finger-numbing December chill.

“I absolutely wanted to be here for her resurrection, braving winds, rain, cold — no matter,” she said. “She lives again, she is reborn.”

The American carpenter

“Impossible.” That was American carpenter Hank Silver’s first thought when he joined the reconstruction effort — in a workshop in Normandy, northern France, that was working on the rebuild of cathedral’s huge roof that burned.

“I saw the pile of oak logs at our workshop, I started laughing,” he said. “We had 600 logs just for our part in the nave.”

Yet, working with hand tools and woodworking techniques that medieval-era carpenters pioneered in building Notre Dame more than 800 years ago, the job got done.

“The way I see it, a cathedral is a perpetual job site,” 42-year-old Silver said. “Maybe we’re part of the same crew, in a way, as those guys 800 years ago. It’s just been kind of an unbroken, ongoing process.”

“It’s fair to say that, broadly speaking, we have saved the building.”

The fire safety officer

When Ouaziz Abrous was hired after the blaze to work as a fire-safety officer on the reconstruction site, Notre Dame was “in a catastrophic state,” he recalled.

The fire-savaged shell had gaping holes in its vaulted ceilings and there were “ashes everywhere,” he said.

Among the 2,500 people who filled the newly resplendent cathedral for Saturday’s first reopening ceremony, Abrous stood out, not only because of his bright workman’s jacket and crackling walkie-talkie but because of the grin on his face.

“Everything is grandiose, everything is exceptional, everyone is happy, you see the joy on people’s faces,” he said. “The Christian faithful have waited five years for this day and now the cathedral is theirs.

“Eight thousand people played their part, each of them leaving their own little touch,” he added. “For us, it’s an extraordinary satisfaction.”

In the rebuild, cutting-edge fire safety systems have been installed, with thermal cameras, smoke detectors, and water-misting equipment to prevent a similar catastrophe in the future.

“If in 2019 they’d had the measures we have today, it wouldn’t have burned,” Abrous said. “For five years, we protected it like a crystal glass — 24 hours a day.”

The French carpenter

While working as a carpenter on the rebuild, 39-year-old Martin Lorentz decided that when the work was finished, he’d like to get married in Notre Dame.

Now, he can.

“The idea came to me when I was working at cutting the biggest pieces of wood for the choir,” he said. “I thought why not? Our love is great and the cathedral is great.”

He wrote to Archbishop Laurent Ulrich, who approved the idea. The date’s not yet set but he and his fiancée attended the first Mass on Sunday.

Based in the south-western French region of Dordogne, Lorentz mostly worked on the wooden framework of the choir and in the rafters of Notre Dame itself, amid the scaffolding, machines and bustle.

“It was a great adventure,” he said. “Now it’s so beautiful, so clear and brand-new.”

___

AP journalists Jeffrey Schaeffer and Sylvie Corbet contributed.