Eight bells return to belfry of Notre Dame in Paris

PARIS (AFP) — Eight bells, one weighing over four tons, were returned to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris Thursday, just months before it is due to reopen five years after a devastating fire.

"These bells are the voice of the cathedral, the ones that ring every day," said Philippe Jost, head of the Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris organization.

The bells' arrival "lets us look ahead to the rebirth of Notre Dame" on Dec. 7, he added, speaking among dozens of onlookers who had come to snap pictures of the delivery.

Teams repairing damage from the April 15, 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 the foundry that first cast them 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.

The bells will be restored to their place in the belfry in "the next two or three weeks" and tested before the reopening, Jost said.

Heavyweight "Gabriel" weighs more than 4.5 tons, while the lightest, "Jean-Marie," clocks in at a dainty under-1 ton.

Notre Dame has 20 bells in total, including two massive "bourdons" — the largest weighing 14.3 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 Dec. 7 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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By Agence France-Presse