With the recent approval of the municipal government, Saigon’s Notre Dame Cathedral will begin a major roof renovation project as early as next year.
Church officials began to notice the structure’s decay last year, reports VnExpress. After the Saigon Construction Quality Control JSC assessed its condition, Saigon’s Archdiocese decided some repairs were in order, the top priority being roof leakage.
Father Ho Van Xuan, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Archdiocese, will now act as head of the project’s management board. The project will be implemented carefully to "keep the original beauty" of the cathedral, Father Xuan told the news outlet.
Moving forward, one of the biggest challenges Father Xuan and his team now face is the sourcing of materials: during its original construction, the cathedral’s building materials were brought from France, specifically Marseille. In the renovation of Notre Dame’s roof, the HCMC Archdiocese will have to source around 50,000 replacement tiles.
The project will be financed by the Archdiocese and will finish in 2019, if everything goes according to plan. The walls of the cathedral, which have been vandalized, will also be repainted. The roof, interior and two bell towers will be renovated later in three separate phases of the two-year project.
[Photo via Zing]
