Photos: Notre Dame Cathedral to be rebuilt as before - no modern twists

Workers prepare to remove damaged scaffolding elements from the remains of the burnt roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The Cathedral will be rebuilt just the way it stood before last year's devastating fire. No swimming pool or organic garden on the roof of the medieval Paris monument, or contemporary glass spire, or other modern twists. And to stay historically accurate, it will again be built with potentially toxic lead.

That's the verdict reached by French President Emmanuel Macron, the cathedral's present-day architects and the general in charge of the colossal reconstruction project for one of the world's most treasured landmarks.

Macron, who wants Notre Dame reopened in time for the 2024 Olympics, had initially pushed for a contemporary touch atop the cathedral, prompting eye-catching proposals from architects around the world.

But Macron came around to the traditionalists' argument, and approved reconstruction plans for the 12th century monument that were presented Thursday, according to a statement from state agency overseeing the project.

The plan includes recreating the 19th-century spire by Viollet Le Duc that collapsed in the fire, and "favours fidelity to the monument's form and a restoration of the cathedral in its latest state," the statement said.

That means the state Notre Dame was in the afternoon of April 15, 2019, before fire broke out beneath its roof, toppling its spire, consuming the roof and threatening the rose-windowed twin towers that keep the cathedral upright.

More than a year later, the structure remains unstable. It took nearly a year to clear out dangerous lead residue released in the fire and to get to the point where workers could start removing scaffolding that had been in place before the fire for a previous renovation effort. Actual reconstruction won't start until next year.

The reconstruction plan presented says it will replicate original materials "to guarantee the authenticity, harmony and coherence of this masterpiece of Gothic art." Those materials originally include tons of lead, which is raising concerns among health and environmental groups.

Members of Charpentiers sans Frontiers or 'Carpenters Without Borders' use ropes to lift a part of the frame that has been constructed in order to illustrate that the trusses that support the roof of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, could be rebuilt by hand identically like the original, and within a reasonable time frame, in Ermenouville, Normandy

Workers walk through a scaffolding at Notre Dame cathedral.

A file photo taken on July 14, 2017, in Paris, shows Notre-Dame Cathedral on the Ile de la Cite.