PARIS (AP) — The reopening of Notre Dame this coming weekend goes to be a high-security affair, with a repeat of some measures used throughout the Paris Olympics and the sealing-off to vacationers of the cathedral’s island location within the coronary heart of the French capital.
After greater than 5 years of reconstruction following the hearth that devastated Notre Dame in 2019, invite-only ceremonies Saturday and Sunday will usher in its rebirth.
Police chief Laurent Nuñez mentioned solely folks with invites and the island’s residents may have entry to the Ile de la Cité in the midst of the River Seine, which incorporates Notre Dame and habitually hums with vacationers.
He mentioned about 50 heads of state and authorities are anticipated and that safety preparations are drawing on the police measures that sealed off massive sections of central Paris for the Paris Games’ flamboyant opening ceremony.
AP correspondent Karen Chammas stories on upcoming celebrations for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.
“A really excessive degree of safety might be utilized,” Nuñez mentioned in an interview revealed Monday in Le Parisien.
President-elect Donald Trump mentioned late Monday that he could be attending the reopening celebration. The 2019 hearth occurred throughout Trump’s first time period as U.S. president.
Archbishop to bang on the doorways
The first celebrations beginning Saturday afternoon will mix non secular ritual and showbiz. Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich will preside at a reopening service, banging on Notre Dame’s shuttered doorways together with his workers to reopen them, the cathedral web site says.
The archbishop can even symbolically reawaken Notre Dame’s thunderous grand organ. The hearth that melted the cathedral’s lead roofing coated the large instrument in poisonous mud. Its 8,000 pipes, ranging in dimension from that of a pen to over 10 meters (33 ft) tall, have been painstakingly disassembled, cleaned, and retuned.
There can even be psalms, prayers and singing. French President Emmanuel Macron will attend and deal with the VIP visitors.
A musical present
After the service, opera singers Pretty Yende, from South Africa, and Julie Fuchs, from France; Chinese pianist Lang Lang; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Benin-born singer Angelique Kidjo; Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji and others will carry out at a live performance Saturday night for the cathedral and people who took half in the reconstruction, says the present’s broadcaster, France Télévisions.
The safety cordon sealing off the entire of the Ile de La Cité, plus a stretch of the Seine’s southern financial institution and 9 of its bridges, might be in place from early Saturday night to Sunday evening, the police chief mentioned. Only these concerned within the ceremonies and residents might be granted entry, he mentioned. All retailers on the island — many are geared to the vacationer commerce — in addition to boat excursions that begin and cease there might be closed for the weekend, he added.
Sunday Mass and buffet
The Paris archbishop can even lead an inaugural Mass and consecration of the brand new altar on Sunday morning.
Nearly 170 bishops from France and different international locations will be part of the celebration, in addition to clergymen from all 106 parishes within the Paris diocese, the cathedral web site says.
It says Mass might be adopted by a “fraternal buffet” for the needy.
Public viewing areas able to holding 40,000 folks might be arrange on the Seine’s southern financial institution, so spectators can comply with the 2 days of occasions on screens, the police chief mentioned.
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