French police stand in front of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, which was destroyed by fire in 2019. File | Photo Credit: Reuters

The bells of the Notre Dame Church in Paris rang together for the first time since then on Friday, November 8, 2024. A devastating fire in 2019 historical cathedral.

The ringing of eight bells in Notre Dame’s north steeple comes a month before the cathedral reopens after five years of painstaking restoration work following the fire.

“This is a beautiful, important and symbolic step,” said Philippe Jost, who heads the public agency tasked with restoring the cathedral under difficult conditions.

On the evening of April 19, 2019, Parisians and the world watched in horror as flames devastated the world heritage monument and then toppled its tower.

President Emmanuel Macron quickly set the ambitious goal of rebuilding Notre Dame within five years and making it “even more beautiful” than before.

Nearly 250 companies and hundreds of experts were mobilized for the restoration, which cost hundreds of millions of euros.

Shortly before 10:30am (09:30 GMT) on Friday, the bells rang out one by one until all eight were ringing in unison.

“It’s not perfect yet, but we will make it perfect,” said Alexandre Gougeon, who was responsible for reinstalling the bells. “This first test was successful.”

The 2019 fire destroyed part of the north bell tower, requiring it to be restored and the bells removed, cleaned of dust and lead, and then returned to their place.

The heaviest bell, “Gabriel”, weighs over four tons, and the lightest, “Jean-Marie”, weighs 800 kilograms.

There will be weekend ceremonies celebrating the reopening of Notre-Dame on December 7 and 8.