Every year, numerous sites are renovated and returned to Parisians after months or even years of restoration work. From museums such as the Musée National de la Marine and the Musée Bourdelle to iconic landmarks such as the Stravinsky fountain... the year 2023 provided many highlights for all lovers of French heritage. This year, 2024, is no exception, and promises to be just as intense in terms of emotions, thanks to the announced reunion with three of the capital's must-see landmarks: Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, the Madeleine church and the Innocents fountain.
We start, of course, with Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral. If tourists were hoping to be able to admire the cathedral rebuilt this summer for the Olympic Games, they've missed out! They'll have to wait until the end of the year to do so. Visiting the Notre-Dame construction site on December 8, Emmanuel Macron announced that the cathedral would reopen to the public on December 8, 2024, more than five and a half years after the terrible fire that ravaged the edifice on April 16, 2019.
While the spire has recently returned to the top of Notre-Dame de Paris, the area around the cathedral is soon to be redeveloped, with the planting of trees and the creation of an " interior promenade in the former parking lot beneath the forecourt ", says the City of Paris.
During this visit last December, the President of the Republic also announced the forthcoming opening of a museum dedicated to Notre-Dame de Paris, but also to its history and its construction site. It will be housed in the Hôtel-Dieu building on the Île de la Cité, and will house the cathedral's ancient stained-glass windows.
Another heritage site to be returned to Parisians this year? The Madeleine church. Begun in spring 2021, restoration work on the façade of this building in the 8th arrondissement should be completed in a few weeks' time. For the moment, no official date has been given, but the gigantic scaffolding covering the main entrance to the Madeleine should disappear very soon, revealing a freshly renovated main façade this winter.
The fifteen 20-metre-high columns, each with a capital, will be restored to their former glory, as will the sculpted elements such as the pediment, the tympanum of the door and the statues in the niches, as well as the monumental bronze and iron doors, the work of Henri de Triqueti.
Finally, 2024 will also see the return of the Innocents fountain. Located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, this Renaissance treasure, listed as a historic monument since 1862, has been the subject of a major restoration project since July 2023. If all goes according to plan, the Fountain of the Innocents, located in the heart of Les Halles, should unveil a new face by June 2024.
Considered one of the capital's oldest fountains, the Fountain des Innocents was built in 1549, and designed by architect Pierre Lescot. Although water has not flowed through it since 2017, this restoration of the fountain, " damaged by decades of pollution, bad weather and corrosion of the hydraulic system ", explains the City of Paris, should allow the fountain to flow again, but also protect the building's artistic and architectural heritage.
