Notre Dam Great Bell to Ring to Remark One Year to Blaze

On 8 pm today, the great bell of the South Tower of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris will ring on the first anniversary for the blaze, which devastated the centuries-old building. This is the only action scheduled on this occasion with the outbreak of the Coronavirus in France.

According to CNN, 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.

Agence France Press quoted Army general Jean-Louis Georgelin, President Emmanuel Macron's special representative for the reconstruction, that the bell will ring in conjunction with the French applause for the medical teams dealing with Corona virus patients.

Notre Dame has two huge bells in the south tower: Emmanuel (1686) and Mary (2013).

"Emmanuel" weighs 13 tons and strikes 500 kilograms, which is the second largest bell in France after the bell of the Church of the Sacred Heart.

It rings during major religious ceremonies and important events such as the victories of 1918 and 1945 in the two world wars, elections, and the death of the popes.

A year after the fire broke out in the cathedral, the building is still in an "absolute emergency" phase, and actual restoration work has not yet begun.

On Friday, Archbishop Michel Obote, Archbishop of Paris, organized a "Good Friday" ceremony without worshipers at the cathedral.

Earlier, in late January, Louis Georgelin told the French Senate 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."