Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump will also attend the Notre Dame reopening ceremony.

An extremely large number of security forces - six thousand police and gendarmes - will be mobilized on Saturday and Sunday for the reopening of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. About fifty heads of state and government are expected to attend the ceremony.

Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez announced at his press conference on Monday that six thousand police and gendarmes will be mobilized for the two days, similar to the opening of the Summer Olympic Games. Nunez repeatedly emphasized that they are not aware of an explicit threat, they are acting in accordance with the conditions of the "very high level of terrorist threat" in force.

The army's anti-terrorist unit called Sentinelle is mobilized and anti-drone operations are placed under the army's jurisdiction. The police department's river brigade will also be put on alert, as will the BRI crime detection and rapid response police unit, with snipers on rooftops to ensure security.

The Cité island, where the cathedral stands, can only be entered by those invited, those participating in the ceremonies, and those who live there, traffic will be stopped.

The restrictions will start on Wednesday, five areas will be cordoned off on the upper quays on the left bank of the Seine, where 40,000 people will be able to fit, and you can follow the events of the two days on projectors.

The cathedral has a capacity of 3,000 people. The cathedral, which was built more than 850 years ago, is one of the most visited buildings in Europe. In 2017, 12 million people saw it. After the reopening, the Diocese of Paris expects 14 million visitors.

At the Saturday ceremony, led by Laurent Ulrich, Archbishop of Paris, the closed doors of the cathedral will be solemnly opened. The archbishop will also symbolically play the organ - read on the website of Notre-Dame.

During the devastating fire in the cathedral in April 2019, as a result of the melting of the covering of the roof structure, toxic dust engulfed the huge instrument. The eight thousand pipes, the smallest of which are the size of a pencil and the largest of which are more than ten meters high, were painstakingly cleaned and retuned.

At the ceremony, which will include psalms, prayers and songs, French President Emmanuel Macron will also be present and address the guests.

After that, South African opera singers Pretty Yende and French Julie Fuchs, Chinese pianist Lang Lang, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo, Lebanese singer Hiba Tavadji and others will give a concert for those who are rebuilding the cathedral.

The inauguration mass and the consecration of the new altar will be held on Sunday morning under the chairmanship of the Archbishop of Paris. Almost 170 French and foreign bishops will participate in the presentation of the Mass, as well as the priests of the 106 parishes of the Diocese of Paris. After the mass, food is distributed to the needy.

Donald Trump will travel to Paris on Saturday to attend the reopening of Notre Dame

Donald Trump, the future president of the United States, announced on his social media page on Monday that he will travel to Paris on Saturday.

The president, who was elected on November 5 and took office in January, announced that he will participate in the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, which was the victim of a fire five years ago, in the French capital.

Donald Trump also expressed appreciation to French President Emmanuel Macron for the complete and successful renovation of the historical monument.

MTI

Front page image: The bell used in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and then donated to Notre-Dame Cathedral after its arrival at the cathedral in Paris on November 7, 2024, when the cathedral's eight bells in the north tower will ring again after more than five years. The bells removed from the north tower, which burned down in the fire on April 15, 2019, returned to Notre-Dame in September 2024, in the other tower of which the Olympic bell is located together with two smaller ones.
MTI/EPA/Christophe Petit Tesson