The promise of a reopening in 2024 had been formulated by the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, on the evening of the spectacular fire which had ravaged the building on April 15, 2019.

«We are quite confident, all of us, collectively, that the year 2024 (…) will be the year of culmination of a large part of this project, in any case of the opening of the cathedral to worship and to the public,» Ms. Abdul Malak said.

Last week, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, in charge of the restoration of the cathedral, had declared to Figaro that a reopening on this horizon was «a tense, rigorous and complicated objective», without however calling into question the initial calendar. .

«For the moment, nothing, nothing, nothing allows us to say that the 2024 objective will not be met,» he insisted on Thursday.

The site, with a total budget of 850 million euros, is currently in its second phase, that of reconstruction, after an initial period of securing/consolidation which has made it possible to stabilize this masterpiece of art. Gothic.

A third phase of exterior reconstruction of the cathedral will follow, then the development of the forecourt which, for its part, depends on the town hall of Paris.

The fire of Notre-Dame – whose causes have still not been established with certainty – had caused the collapse of its frame, its spire, its clock and part of its vault, ravaged by the flames .