General in charge of Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral reconstruction dies

The French army general appointed to oversee the reconstruction of Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral has died during a mountain walk.

“The nation has lost one of its great soldiers,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.

He described General Jean-Louis Georgelin, 74, as one of France’s “great servants” and “the architect of Notre Dame’s rebirth.”

In 2019, Macron appointed Georgelin to oversee the reconstruction of Notre Dame following a fire that devastated the cathedral.

The cathedral is being restored to its previous design, including the wooden spire that collapsed during the blaze. French authorities hope to complete the work by 2024, when Paris hosts the Olympics.

Georgelin was Chief of Staff of the armies between 2006 and 2010 and then Grand Chancellor of the French National Order of the Legion of Honor between 2010 and 2016.