Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, who is overseeing the cathedral's reconstruction, said that the removal of the scaffolding would take many weeks because of the meticulous and careful nature of the activity involved.

The symbolic Notre Dame Cathedral suffered extensive damage from a fire earlier this year. The blaze began on April 15, consuming the iconic 300-foot spire and burning through a large amount of wood on the inside and outside of the building. Some treasures were saved by the more than 500 firefighters who battled the blaze for 15 hours, at one point risking their lives by staying inside to build a wall of water between the fire and the bell towers. Fire officials revealed that the 850-year-old cathedral was within 15 to 30 minutes from being entirely consumed. As it was, a large amount of the wooden frames inside were charred.

Much of the cathedral remained, however. The famous organ, which has 8,000 pipes, is intact. It dates to the 1730s. The cathedral's three very large rose windows are still there, as was what is thought to have been a piece of wood from the Crown of Thorns that the Bible says Jesus wore on the Cross. The cathedral was home to many more famous and irreplaceable works of art, however, and officials are already undertaking a damage assessment. Many other smaller stained glass windows already number among the artistic and architectural casualties.

In the wake of the fire, French President Emmanuel Macron an international competition to design a replacement spire and promised that the cathedral would be rebuilt within five years.

In order to remove the scaffolding, Georgelin said, workers will enact another set of scaffolding around the existing set, then remove the inner scaffolding bit by bit, taking care that nothing falls on the already damaged stone vaults. The fire brought down the spire and much of the existing scaffolding with it.

Georgelin said that the workers would not hurry through their task and, once the scaffolding had been removed, inspect each and every stone and piece of wood remaining in order to discover the true extent of the damage.