Notre Dame Cathedral
| Updated: 23 Dec 2019
Notre Dame Cathedral - As repair work continues on the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris its’ been announced that there will not be a Christmas Mass for the first time in more than 200 years. The 850-year-old Gothic cathedral, a Unesco World Heritage site, lost its spire and roof during the blaze in April. President Emmanuel Macron has set a five-year goal for its reconstruction. In October, the French culture ministry said nearly €1bn (£850m; $1.1bn) had been raised or pledged for the work.
The iconic building has celebrated Christmas Mass through two centuries of often turbulent history, only closing during the French revolution when anti-Catholic forces turned it briefly into "a temple of reason".