This is an updated version of a story first published on Dec. 1, 2025. The original video can be viewed here.
Three weeks ago today, the first worship service in more than five years was held in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in paris. Thousands of people crowded into the Catholic cathedral to attend mass, receive communion, and celebrate the rebirth of this centuries- old gothic masterpiece. When a devastating fire tore through Notre Dame in 2019, people around the world feared that the cathedral might collapse. Only a heroic effort by firefighters prevented that, and as we saw just a few weeks before the reopening, a monumental effort to repair and restore Notre Dame has now produced something of a modern miracle.
Many people deserve credit for the resurrection of Notre Dame, but none more than French President Emmanuel Macron.
Bill Whitaker: You made a promise the day after Notre Dame continued in 2019 and you said: “We are going to rebuild Notre give me more lovely than before, and I need to see that done in the next five years. ” Did you do it? “Do you have any doubt when you said it is possible?
Emmanuel Macron: If you have doubts, it’s over.
Bill Whitaker: Someone we talked about for a moon moment, Moon.
Emmanuel Macron: These five years have been a kind of new frontier. That Parf, perfectly true. When I announced to all the five-year-old experts, a lot of other people just made comments to say, “He’s crazy. “
Bill Whitaker: So what gave you the confidence, while Notre Dame was still smoking.
Emmanuel Macron: I have noticed that those types, those firefighters, I mean, go beyond their own talents with such power and commitment. And I think that is precisely, it is a type of metaphor for what our societies, and especially ours – our democracies, need. Making how unthinkable possible.
Philippe Jost: We are all very proud of what we have together.
Last year, President Macron appointed Philippe Jost to lead the team restored to Notre Dame. We knew it only internal, what is still an area of active structure?
Bill Whitaker: What words come to me when you first enter?
Philippe Jost: Light. The gentle is very impressive and space. In this monument, there is a soul.
Bill Whitaker: a soul–
Philippe Jost: a- soul. et we when we pass now. We’re sorry.
Walking into Notre-Dame today you’re not seeing a sign of 2019. Then the cathedral nave covered in wood and burnt stone rubble, a void in the roof where the flaming arrow crashed even when we visited in 2023, a dense forest of scaffolding remained. It is now open and ventilated. Every stone shines, every stained glass is polished, every master shines, all crowned through a new arrow and a new roof that replaces the general destruction of five years ago.
Philippe Jost: We were big to rebuild.
Bill Whitaker: So there was a gaping hole–
Philippe Jost: A great hole there. When President Macron said five years, we knew that this point here is the maximum and difficult area for restoration.
If Philippe Jost is now commander in chief of the restoration, Philippe Villeneuve remains his artistic director. Main architect of the cathedral long before the fire, we have noticed in 2023 that supervises every detail and each of the artisans.
Bill Whitaker: You also told us that rebuilding Notre Dame was, in a way, rebuilding yourself after the fire. Do you feel rebuilt now?
Philippe Villeneuve: Yes.
“Yes,” says Villeneuve, “I can see photographs of the fire today; see the arrow fall into the flames. This is anything I could not see before. “
Last year, Villeneuve oversaw the structure of a new wooden spire and its lead lid, and designed a new chicken, a symbol of the other French people, for its heyday. It was established last December.
Philippe Villeneuve: And when I saw the arrow and the leader appear . . .
“When I saw the needle and the main roof,” said Villeneuve, “when we put the chicken and the cross in its place, I felt that a wound had closed. ”
Emmanuel Macron: For more than 8 centuries, this cathedral has been there. Two world wars were resisted, many battles and campaigns. The resolution to rebuild Notre-Dame involved our ability to save, restore, reinvent what we are through the preservation of where we come. This is a successful message.
Many achievements, such as the new arrow and the roof, are huge; The huge Notre Dame bells were eliminated after the chimney for cleaning and repair, then returned and tested a few weeks ago. Its organ, with 8,000 pipes, the largest in France, also got rid of, repaired and reinstated a star. The day we were there, an organist filled the cathedral with his thunderous.
One way or another, small achievements appear just as remarkable; Outside, staff hung from ropes to hammer the wood into position and consciously aware of the cobblestones. Inside, gently applying the wax to the old wood, making sure the bulb is on and the floor is neat.
Diana Castillo: Our job is– mostly to bring back all the value of mural painting.
The portrait of Diana Castillo worked in the many small chapels of Notre Dame, where centuries of art have been painted on walls and stone roofs.
Diana Castillo: We had many paintings to bleach them.
Diana shared images and videos of how they looked at the chapels and paintings when she and other conservatives began her paintings after the chimney, cloudy and dark, and what they look at now, after cleaning.
Diana Castillo: So we did one chapel after another, after another and after we finish the cleaning (laugh) process, it was really almost one year. We were like, “Okay. Now we can see the paint. Now we can appreciate it and start the real– the– the restoration.”
Bill Whitaker: So not only does it undo the soot of the fire, but you eliminate the dirt from the centuries?
Diana Castillo: Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Of 1850 in fact. Many of them had been touched since 1850. So you can imagine, one hundred seventy years.
Today, the artwork shines. The ceilings show starry nights with deep blue and gold, and the stone columns that had been gray are now kaleidoscopes of color.
Bill Whitaker: And you bring those colors back to life?
Diana Castillo: Absolutely, yes. And I’m sure many other people will be surprised. And the “results” like this are very passable to us, of course.
Similar transformations are in the new Notre Dame. The stone walls and the ceilings that had been dark and bleak seem to shine, as well as the many marble statues and ornamental metals. The staff and artisans who have achieved all this is known as “Compans ,,” and their paintings are held in mass banners overlooking the Seine river from the river.
Bill Whitaker: We have heard of anything called Notre Dame Effect, which is other people attracted through crafts and classic trades due to the paintings they do and seeing that they are made here in the cathedral. Have you witnessed this?
Philippe Villeneuve: Test, Notre-Dame to United School . . .
“It’s true,” Philippe Villeneuve told us, “that Notre Dame is a wonderful school for all other handicrafts. Carpents, metallurgists, stone sculptors, painters; all those types of work have been stimulated through the place of the place for eat”.
Anne Dias: I’ve visited the site several times. And each time, what caught my attention was the commitment, joy and duty of the partners I met.
Anne Dias Griffin was born in France and knew in the United States, where she directs an investment firm. He helped mobilize monetary in the United States to revitalize Notre Dame.
Bill Whitaker: Why do you think this symbol of Paris and of France inspires such strong feelings not just here, but in the U.S. and– and around the world?
Anne Dias: Notre-Dame symbolizes anything universal. And that’s anything to appreciate.
Anne’s contribution to the restoration effort was one of the largest from anyone in the U.S.
Anne days: that of Americans was huge. There were more than 45,000 donors who contributed the budget to the cathedral for a sum of more than $ 57 million. So we deserve to be incredibly proud of this.
Each necessary penny. The general position of restoring Notre Dame is taking place one billion dollars, of which Philippe Jost told us measures to save some other tragedy.
Bill Whitaker: So, does the new chimney detection, new chimney suppression systems that have been installed?
Philippe Jost: Installed in the roof.
Bill Whitaker: So that would prevent another catastrophe like this from ever happening again?
Philippe Jost: We are very sure of himself in this. This will not be again.
Jost also expressed the confidence that the reconstruction of the “new” Notre gives me the “old” wood, stone and lead fabrics will help him last.
Philippe Jost: The cathedral is 860 years old and we will repair it for 860 years.
Bill Whitaker: That will last the –
Philippe Jost: 860 years –
Bill Whitaker: – 860 years.
Philippe Jost: And perhaps more.
Architect Philippe Villeneuve championed the use of traditional materials, especially to build the towering new spire just as the old one had been constructed. But he let us in on a secret: there is one new touch up there.
Philippe Villeneuve: I myself a little trace of myself,
“I left a small mark of myself,” he told us. “On one of the hooks of the new spire is my face, with an admiring and affectionate look, to represent all the compagnons who rebuilt the cathedral.”
Emmanuel Macron: Bill how are you.
Bill Whitaker: Hello, Mr. President.
President Macron visited Notre Dame while we were there, while he was still humming with the arrangements for the opening day.
Emmanuel Macron: It is impressive and very moving to see that we still have dozens of other people who paint a lot to finish the paintings.
And as Notre Dame’s great doors reopen, might that spirit be even a little bit contagious?
Bill Whitaker: There is a lot of political department here in France, as is in the United States. So, in this climate, is it vital to have a task like this one that divides?
Emmanuel Macron: We are talking about the moment of unity and pride. And that is precisely what our nations need, especially at this time. We take a look to look at TH, this type of moment and great projects and say that if we are in a position and capable of doing so, why do we not review to fix other disorders from our countries, perhaps more summarized but very important?
Bill Whitaker: So he’s NotArray huh?
Emmanuel Macron: Definitely. It’s French motto. Impossible is not French.
Produced through Rome Hartman. Associated producer, Matthew Riley. Dissemination partner, Mariah Johnson. Edited through Craig Crawford.