Fury as President Macron reveals the new ‘contemporary gesture’ for cathedral devastated by 2019 fire

In the wake of the April 2019 fire that devastated Notre Dame cathedral, the French president Emmanuel Macron promised the monument would be rebuilt with a “contemporary gesture”.

There followed all manner of madcap ideas: a glass spire; a 300ft ­carbon-fibre flame, a swimming pool on the roof and a covered garden. In the end, Notre Dame was restored to its original former glory and ­reopened in a ceremony this month.