Scheduled for December 8, the reopening of Notre Dame from Paris It will have a partially restored structure by the architect Philippe Villeneuve, including its emblematic needle, recently rediscovered. Inside, several designers have been used to rethink liturgical furniture, vases and liturgical objects, as well as complementary furniture and seats. «Silence» is the common theme that has guided designers in these new creations. In fact, it is intended that they are subtly integrated into the cathedral, without overloading the 850 -year -old building, essentially made of stone and stained glass windows. «If someone had told me at the beginning of my career that I would live the Notre Dame fire and that I would participate in its reconstruction, I would never have believed it,» trusts Mons. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, rector-arciprete and assignee of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. However, reopening has never seemed so close, and we are impatient for rediscovering this Parisian monument with a centenary history. About 15 million visitors are expected, so the challenge, as summarized by the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, is «to celebrate faith and welcome the entire world.» Here is a look.
Guillaume Bardet liturgical furniture
The liturgical furniture includes the altar, the chair and the associated seats, the ambony, the baptistery and the tabernacle. The project was entrusted to designer Guillaume Bardet, whose style is sober and deep. His proposal was a bronze furniture with a powerful and timeless aesthetic, which would be harmoniously integrated into the sacred environment of the cathedral, interacting with the golden tone of the stone and the light of the stained glass windows. Bronze is an «immutable» material that the French designer «knows well», especially for the «silence and calm» that evokes. «The bronze arose to exist without shouting, without 'showing more,» he explains. «It made no sense to face the blonde stone of Notre Dame With an even stronger mineral. «So all the pieces were conceived to work together» in a very simple way, to exist in the past – 800 years of history – the present and the future «, to be accessible to all, believers and profane.» These bronze pieces are also characters that speak to everyone, which tell stories, even out of the ceremonies. «