A first look at the restored interior of Notre Dame Cathedral five years after the devastating fire

Photos and video released Friday show the first glimpse inside the restored Notre Dame cathedral five years after a devastating fire in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron Reuters reported that they toured the magnificent structure before it reopened to the public on December 8.

Outside, the 12th-century monument is still a construction site, complete with scaffolding and cranes, but inside, restoration – including removing years of accumulated dirt – has revealed the cathedral’s bright colors once again. .

“We are eager to welcome the whole world under the roof of our cathedral,” Laurent Ulrich, Archbishop of Paris, said on his website. According to Reuters. “On the night of April 15, [2019]hundreds of thousands of people devoted themselves to what at the time seemed an impossible task: to restore the cathedral and return it to its glory within the unprecedented deadline of five years.”

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Carpenters worked by hand like their medieval counterparts when they carved giant oak beams to rebuild the roof and spire that collapsed during the volcano.

Nearly $1 billion in donations were collected for Rebuild Notre Dame In the days after the fire.

Restoration chief Philip Jost told the Associated Press that approximately $148 million of these funds are still outstanding.

He noted that the funds will be used “for necessary work campaigns under agreement with patrons and donors,” as Notre Dame faces continued demands for preservation and structural integrity.

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Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, a nonprofit organization founded in 2017, has helped lead international fundraising efforts.

Michael Picaud, president of Friends of Notre Dame de Paris, told Fox News Digital last week that the cathedral was already in disrepair. before the fire.

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“The fire was a terrible event for us because suddenly we had to not only restore part of the cathedral but rebuild it, which meant that the scope of what we had to do was enormous. We had high hopes that We will be able to rebuild it quite a bit,” Picaud said.

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Macron will return on December 7 to give a speech and participate in the consecration of the new altar during a lavish mass the following day.

Fox News’ Ashley J. DeMilla and The Associated Press contributed to this report.