Members of the Notre Dame Cathedral choir, wearing safety helmets and protective suits, sang inside this historic medieval building in Paris for the first time since last year's devastating fire, on the occasion of a special concert by Good night.
Accompanied by a famous cellist and a rented organ, the choristers performed in front of the stained glass windows of the cathedral,
which was not fully illuminated.
The temple is in the transition from being a place where a precarious and dangerous cleaning task was carried out to becoming the scene of a great reconstruction.
Initially, the choir had planned the participation of 20 singers but,
for security reasons, the number was restricted to eight.
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The members of the choir maintained social distancing to remove their masks - which are compulsory to use indoors in France to contain the spread of the virus - and sing.
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The concert, which included 'Silent Night' in English and French, 'The Hymn of the Angels' and even 'Jingle Bells', was previously recorded this month and aired before midnight on Thursday.
No public was allowed and access to the interior of Notre Dame is not scheduled until at least 2024.
The diocese described it as a
"highly symbolic concert ... characterized by emotion and hope,"
and the celebration of a "musical heritage dating back to the Middle Ages."
The Archbishop of Paris, Monsignor Michel Aupetit, held the Christmas Eve service in the Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois church in front of the Louvre Museum, instead of Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame choir used to give 60 concerts a year inside the cathedral but, since the fire, their presentations have been itinerant in the churches of Paris.
The April 2019 fire consumed the main roof of the cathedral and destroyed its spiral tower.
Earlier this month,
workers managed to stabilize the site enough to begin reconstruction work.
With information from AP