the liturgical tray assembled “blank”
With its black and white paving, the new choir plateau of Notre-Dame de Paris fills with its 200 m2, a good part of the warehouse of the Baudin-Châteauneuf company, in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire, where it was “ mounted on a blank”. “It’s spectacular and gives us an idea of the scale of the cathedral! “, admired Philippe Jost, president of the public establishment Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris, project owner of the work, before emphasizing “the mixture of cutting-edge technology and heritage know-how to find the podium installed by Mgr. Lustiger in 2000.”
Pulverized by the fall of the spire at the crossing of the transept, the plateau had to be completely redone. “But we had a lot of difficulty cleaning its remains during the consolidation phase of the cathedral and we wanted the new one, although identical in appearance, to be a reversible structure if the clergy one day wishes to modify this liturgical arrangement . In addition, this structure makes it possible to discreetly integrate the electrical and ventilation systems necessary for the life of the cathedral,” explains architect Alexis Giroud for project management.
“We usually manufacture metal frames, bridge elements… explains Damien Colombot, chairman of the management board of Baudin-Châteauneuf. There we supplied the metal structure of eleven tonnes of steel which supports the stone. The lightest steel possible was needed with beams that span the crypt of the monument without weighing on it, and at the same time which do not bend under the weight of the altar. » This one has in fact been remade in bronze and weighs 1.5 tonnes. The Virgin on the Pillar will find its place in the southwest corner of the plateau which will also hold the other elements of the liturgical furniture.
This “metal grid” of the structure rests “on fifty-nine concrete blocks and supports a mixed steel-concrete floor which itself carries the paving of the three levels of the plateau”, details Thibault Durant des Aulnois, project manager for the the H. Chevalier company which supervises the entire operation. The square slabs measuring 65 cm on each side were cut from “Hainaut blue”, a black stone from Belgium and beige Moleanos stone from Portugal.
In total, with its three levels and its 100 linear meters of steps, the liturgical plateau weighs 70 tons. This blank assembly made it possible to ensure that all the elements will fit together perfectly, to resolve any possible problems in advance and to train for the “real” assembly which should begin on August 3 in the cathedral. and take about seven weeks. Indeed, for the moment, the scaffolding of the transept crossing has not yet been dismantled because it remains to patinate and gild the decorations of the vault which was closed on May 24. “Until now, my work on the upcoming liturgical celebrations in the cathedral took place on paper, in an office. There, in front of this magnificent work, I now feel at the heart of the subject!” concluded Father Guillaume Normand, vice-rector of Notre-Dame.
