Notre Dame restoration sets deadline for December 2024 reopening

Workers at Paris's emblematic Notre Dame cathedral have one year, starting on Friday, to finish restoring the gothic monument in time for its reopening following a monstrous fire in 2019 that almost destroyed it.

Restoration of the UNESCO-listed building, which usually welcomes some 12 million visitors each year, has hit several snags since people around the world watched in horror as its steeple crashed down in the blaze on April 15, 2019.

But its new spire has started to emerge against the French capital's skyline and is expected to be fully completed when the city hosts the Olympic Games this summer.

Behind the scaffolding, hundreds of workers are racing against the clock to restore the rest of the cathedral in time for it to reopen its doors to the public on December 8, 2024.

"We're within the timeframe. We're confident and determined to meet the deadline, but it remains a day-to-day battle," the civil servant in charge of restoration, Philippe Jost, told BFM TV last week.

The work has been "entirely funded" by $848 million in donations from France and abroad, Jost said.

Special order for Notre Dame's 60th anniversary

The monument's new spire is identical to the previous one, designed by the 19th-century architect Eugene Viollet-Le-Duc.

Its oak structure is to reach its full height of 96 metres by the end of the year. It will then be covered in lead ornaments before the scaffolding is taken down, Jost said.

The frames of the nave and the choir of the cathedral, which were also destroyed, are then due for completion, after which the reconstruction of the roof can begin.

The final stages are to include cleaning the interior - an area that covers some 42,000 square metres and installing new furniture in the autumn.

For its 60th anniversary next year, it will be delivering its most prestigious order yet - 1,500 chairs for the cathedral.

French President Emmanuel Macron initially promised to have Notre Dame restored within five years, in time for the Paris Olympics.

But rebuilding was delayed for months by decontamination efforts, after more than 300 tonnes of lead from the roof melted in the fire.

More than five years after the blaze, three investigating judges are still looking into what sparked it.

An initial enquiry pointed to it probably being an accident, with an electrical fault or a cigarette among the theories.