A global wave of emotion saw 340,000 donors contribute €833 million (£705 million) to restoring the iconic edifice. Some €165 million (£140 million) had already been spent by September on securing the cathedral, which was structurally damaged during the fire. A second chunk of €262.6 million (£222 million) in donations will go towards phase one of restoration work.

Jean-Louis Georgelin, the general who President Emmanuel Macron tasked with rebuilding Notre-Dame, has pledged that it will be sufficiently restored to stage a Te Deum on April 16 2024, in time for the Olympic Games in Paris.

Initially Edouard Philippe, the French prime minister at the time, said he would launch an international competition to rebuild the destroyed roof and spire, potentially with a modern design “that bears the mark of our time”.

After widespread uproar over architectural flights of fancy, one which even included a swimming pool, the contest was scrapped and the spire, roof and medieval wooden beams are all to be rebuilt as faithfully as possible to the original designs.

However, the same cannot be said for the interior given current plans, seen by The Telegraph and two European media outlets.

In June, the Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, said these would “bring the cathedral into the 21st century while preserving its own identity in the spirit of the Christian tradition”.

However, the plans presented by Father Gilles Drouin, the interior will look to the future, not the past.

Under the proposals, visitors will pass through the main entrance and be shepherded towards 14 themed chapels depicting Genesis, Abraham, Exodus and the Prophets but also the five continents. 

While Africa and Asia will have pride of place, Europe, the Americas and Oceania will either be less evident behind the apse or totally absent. The tour ends at a chapel dedicated to “reconciled creation”, namely environmentalism as set out in Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ encyclical.