Notre Dame cathedral will reopen in Paris on Saturday with incoming US president Donald Trump to attend the ceremony marking the resurrection of the Gothic masterpiece five years after a devastating fire.
The Republican confirmed Monday he had accepted an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to attend the grand re-opening of the 850-year-old edifice which was nearly lost to flames in April 2019.
It will be Trump’s first foreign trip since his re-election last month in a political comeback that has set off alarm bells in much of Europe, including in France where Macron regularly tussled with the New York real estate tycoon during his first term.
Trump posted on his Truth Social website that Macron had “done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!”
The presence of Trump is likely to encourage other world leaders to attend as they seek to build relations before his January 20 inauguration.
After he took office in 2017, Trump’s initial dealings with Macron — then also a fresh face on the world stage — had the makings of a “bromance”.
Their long and muscular handshakes — which saw each man seek to assert his superiority — became a light-hearted focus of attention before ties cooled, then soured, following disputes about climate change, trade and defence.
Trump publicly mocked Macron’s “very low approval rating” and even aimed a jibe at France’s war history during a rancorous 2018 trip to the country.
Macron’s current political problems, with his latest government likely to fall this week, risk overshadowing Saturday’s ceremony which the French leader hoped to present as a moment of national and personal triumph.
‘Sublime’
Parisians watched in horror in 2019 as flames ravaged Notre Dame, a landmark famed as the setting for Victor Hugo’s novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and an integral part of the city’s identity.
The apocalyptic images were even seen by some as a sign of the demise of Western civilisation, with the edifice saved from complete collapse only by the heroic intervention of firefighters.
Tweeting as the blaze took place, Trump suggested that “perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out”, leading irritated French officials to dismiss the suggestion and almost certain to devastate what remained of the building.
Some 250 companies and hundreds of experts were brought in to restore the destroyed artwork, blackened walls and damaged facilities at a cost of 700 million euros ($750 million).
During a visit last Friday, Macron praised them for achieving the “impossible” by healing a “national wound”.
Accompanied by Paris’ archbishop Laurent Ulrich and top city politicians, he gazed at the restored pale-coloured stonework in the nave and praised the edifice as “much more welcoming” and “sublime”.
Politics and diplomacy
Saturday’s ceremony will mix public celebration, politics, diplomacy and religion.
Macron is to deliver a speech in front of a small crowd at the cathedral and up to 50 heads of state and government including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier who confirmed his attendance on Tuesday.
They will then inspect the monument and attend a mass service overseen by the archbishop of Paris, which will feature the newly restored 8,000-pipe Grand Organ.
Pope Francis will not attend — to the surprise of some observers. The Catholic church head will instead go on a visit to the French island of Corsica later in December.
A public area with capacity for 40,000 people will be created on the bank of the river Seine opposite Notre Dame, while a concert featuring the Notre Dame choir, the Radio France philharmonic orchestra and singers will be broadcast.
There are unconfirmed rumours that Pharrell Williams will provide some international stardust.
On Sunday, the first mass with 170 bishops and more than 100 Paris priests will take place at 10:30am (0830 GMT) followed by a second service in the evening at 6:30pm which will be open to the public and be attended by Macron.
All tickets for the public mass in the 3,000-seat edifice were reserved within a few hours on Tuesday, according the cathedral’s phone app.
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