The government of France will invite international architects to compete to redesign of the roofline of the Notre-Dame cathedral after Monday night’s blaze gutted the centuries-old building and toppled its 300-foot spire.
The announcement by President Emmanuel Macron came in a prime-time television address yesterday, in which he said the national icon would be rebuilt within five years, reports Reuters.
Separately, the amount of cash pledged by the public, companies and business people topped €800m yesterday, said Bloomberg, with the government intending to legislate on tax breaks and construction procedures.
France must decide whether to copy the spire created in the mid-1800s by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, or reinterpret the roofline with a new design.
"The international competition will allow us to ask the question of whether we should even recreate the spire as it was conceived by Viollet-le-Duc," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told reporters.
"Or if, as is often the case in the evolution of heritage, we should endow Notre-Dame with a new spire."
Image: Notre Dame cathedral on 15 April 2019 (By Remi Mathis/CC BY-SA 4.0)
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