A year before Notre Dame Cathedral is set to reopen after a terrible fire gutted the famous landmark, a rooster — the symbol of France — is set atop the spire.
Before it took flight, it was blessed by the Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich during a ceremony behind the cathedral.
The original rooster, which sustained damage but survived the fire, will eventually go on view in a museum.
Original rooster.
“It’s a phoenix,” said Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect of historical sites who designed the flame-shaped rooster.
“(It) shows that the flame is carried to the highest point of the cathedral… the fire is carried up there, but it’s a fire of resurrection,” he said.