Just a few months before Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is scheduled to reopen five years after a catastrophic fire, eight bells—one of which weighs more than four tonnes—are being restored to the belfry, reports RTE.
In order to finish their job, teams repairing the damage caused by the fire on April 15, 2019, had to remove the bells from Notre Dame’s north tower last July, ranging in size from the largest, “Gabriel,” to the smallest, “Jean-Marie.”
Before being transported by truck back to Paris, the bells themselves have been refurbished in a foundry in Normandy, northern France, and cleansed of lead dust that was blown off by the church’s burning roof, reports RTE.
The eight bells of the peal, each named after a notable person in the history of the church, were to be blessed by Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, the rector of Notre Dame.
“Gabriel,” the heaviest, weighs almost 4.1 tonnes, while “Jean-Marie,” the lightest, is just 782 kilogrammes.
The 20 bells that make up Notre Dame’s overall weight include two enormous bourdons, the greatest of which weighs 13 tonnes. These bells produce the lowest notes, which are rung for significant church occasions like Easter, Christmas, or the passing or election of a pope, reports RTE.
The cathedral, which took nearly two centuries to build and was first finished in 1345, will reopen on December 7 following an extensive repair project that is now underway.
Prior to the fire, the church was visited by about 10 million people annually, reports RTE.
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