New 'underground Cathedral' Opens Ahead Of Paris Olympics

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd May, 2024) It has no spire, stained glass windows or nave but the cavernous underground stormwater facility inaugurated on Thursday in the French capital ahead of the Paris Olympics has been compared to Notre Dame Cathedral.

The giant new structure, burrowed 30 metres (100 feet) under the ground next to a train station, is a key part of efforts to clean up the river Seine, which is set to host swimming events during the Paris Games in July and August.

"It's a real cathedral. It's something exceptional," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Thursday as she walked on the bottom of the vast cylinder-shaped construction that has taken more than three years to complete.

Deputy Paris mayor Antoine Guillou has compared the project in western Paris, near the Austerlitz transport hub, to Notre Dame, which is under reconstruction after a devastating fire in 2019.

"I like to say that we're building two cathedrals," he told reporters during a visit in mid-March.

"There's the one above ground that everyone knows -- Notre Dame. And then there's the one underground."

Notre Dame will not be ready in time for the Paris Games, as promised by President Emmanuel Macron immediately after the inferno that tore through the 850-year-old masterpiece.

But its spire has been restored and workers are busy working on the roof ahead of its grand re-opening in December.

Fortunately for Olympic open-water swimmers, the stormwater facility is set to enter service in June after tests later this month.

Its role will be to store rainwater in the event of a heavy downpour, reducing the chances of the capital's sewerage system needing to discharge its pathogen-rich contents directly into the Seine.