A year after the blaze, Notre Dame's rebuild is on hold due to coronavirus - CNN

Written byOscar Holland

ContributorsAlaa Elassar

It has been a year to the day since a fire devastated the Notre Dame cathedral, causing its spire to collapse and leaving the 850-year-old church's future in doubt.

The blaze, which French prosecutors say may have been started by a cigarette or electrical malfunction, elicited solidarity and donations from around the world last April. But with the coronavirus shutdown bringing restoration efforts to a standstill -- and the country's attention now focused elsewhere -- the somber anniversary is set to pass with little fanfare.

Work at the Paris site has been suspended since March 16, when France introduced widespread measures to help control the spread of Covid-19. And despite the months of recovery work already undertaken, there is ongoing uncertainty about the full extent of the damage.

Army general Jean-Louis Georgelin, President Emmanuel Macron's special representative for the reconstruction, told the French Senate in late January that it was too early to tell whether the cathedral could be saved. He reported that a number of delicate tasks still needed to be completed in order to fully ascertain the structure's condition, including accessing ceiling vaults for inspection and removing the scaffolding that had been erected before the blaze and had partially melted. Georgelin also said that large amounts of lead dust at the site posed a contamination risk that he was taking "very seriously."

The director of the laboratory tasked with assessing the ruins, Aline Magnien of the Historical Monuments Research Laboratory (LRMH), struck an optimistic tone last month, telling Science magazine that "the heart of Notre Dame had been saved."

"What matters isn't the roof and vault so much as the sanctuary they protect," she was quoted as saying, adding: "Notre Dame will be restored. Its artwork, stone and stained glass will be cleaned; it will be more luminous and beautiful than before."

Dismantling of the scaffolding was due to be completed in June, though France's Ministry of Culture has not yet responded to CNN's requests about how the suspension of work may impact the restoration timeline -- or how realistic Macron's initial plans to reopen the landmark by 2024 remain. The French president's priorities lie elsewhere, and on Monday evening he used a televised address to announce that the nationwide shutdown would continue for another month.