Notre Dame has 20 bells in total, including two massive bourdons, the largest weighing 13 tons
This photograph shows the arrival of the eight bells of the north belfry of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, central Paris on September 12, 2024.
Photo by Ed JONES / AFP
PARIS, France (AFP) — Eight bells, one weighing over four tons, will be returned to the belfry in Notre Dame cathedral in Paris Thursday, just months before it is due to reopen five years after a devastating fire.
Teams repairing damage from the 15 April 2019 blaze had to remove the bells — from the largest, “Gabriel,” to the smallest, “Jean-Marie” — from Notre Dame’s north tower last July to complete their work.
The bells themselves have been cleaned of lead dust thrown off by the church’s burning roof and restored at a foundry in Normandy in northern France before their delivery by truck back to Paris.
Notre Dame rector Olivier Ribadeau Dumas was to bless the peal of eight bells, each named after a significant figure from the cathedral’s history, later on Thursday.
Heavyweight “Gabriel” weighs more than 4.1 tons, while the lightest, “Jean-Marie” clocks in at a dainty 782 kilograms.
Notre Dame has 20 bells in total, including two massive bourdons — the largest weighing 13 tons — producing the lowest notes that hang in the south tower, which are rung for major Church events such as Easter, Christmas or the death or election of a Pope.
First completed in 1345 after almost two centuries of construction, the cathedral is set to reopen on 7 December after a massive restoration effort that is still under way.
Around 10 million people per year visited the church before the fire.
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