Inside the restored Notre Dame Cathedral – in pictures

The altar, designed by the French artist and designer Guillaume Bardet, in the heart of the cathedral

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, applauds construction workers after delivering a speech. He said the renovation of the cathedral would give the world a ‘shock of hope’

The restored cathedral will be officially inaugurated on 7 December

The French president and first lady, Brigitte Macron, visit the construction site. The cathedral officially reopens to the public on 7 December

Before the fire in April 2019, about 12 million people a year visited Notre Dame

As part of the restoration, 3,000 wooden dowels were painstakingly fashioned by a carpenter over four months, from oaks that had to match the wood of the structural beams

The original construction of the cathedral began in the 12th century and spanned about 200 years

Macron delivers a speech in the nave. The president thanked those who had contributed to the restoration effort with their labour and financial donations

The Western Rose window. Visitor numbers are expected to hit an all-time high when the cathedral reopens next month

A view of the altar. New stonework has been meticulously pieced together to repair the fire damage

The tabernacle designed by Guillaume Bardet

Rebuilding parts of the cathedral has involved applying carpentry methods from the 13th century

Part of a bas-relief on the cathedral’s exterior

The vaulted ceiling after years of restoration work

The choir stalls. A number of private forest owners offered to donate trees to the reconstruction project

The baptistery designed by Guillaume Bardet. The French designer created various liturgical objects and furniture as part of the restoration

The Macrons admire the restoration work. Hours after the blaze, the president had suggested he was in favour of a ‘contemporary gesture’ in the rebuilding of the cathedral. He later abandoned the idea after vehement public opposition

Macron looks at the architectural details with Philippe Jost, a French civil servant responsible for the reconstruction of the word-famous cathedral

In the weeks before its scheduled grand reopening, Notre Dame has been embroiled in a row over whether to charge visitors a fee to enter the 12th-century gothic masterpiece

Firefighters dousing the flames on 15 April 2019. During his visit on 29 November 2024, Macron described the blaze at Notre Dame as ‘a national wound’

People watch from the banks of the Seine as the cathedral burns

The steeple collapses as smoke and flames engulf parts of the building. The new 96-metre (315ft) spire looks identical to the one destroyed in 2019

In the weeks after the fire, as the damage was assessed, a unique collection of 17th-century religious paintings was removed from the site, damp but mostly undamaged