French president Emmanuel Macron has ended speculation over the future of Notre-Dame by stating that the cathedral's spire will be rebuilt exactly as it was before last year's devastating fire.
Macron has announced that a replica of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc 93-metre-high spire, which was added to the 13th-century cathedral in 1859, will be built as part of the reconstruction.
"The president trusts the experts and approved the main outlines of the project presented by the chief architect, which plans to reconstruct the spire identically," said a statement from the Elysee Palace.
The decision ends speculation over whether a contemporary structure would be added to the French landmark.
Viollet-le-Duc spire to be reconstructed
The decision to reconstructed Viollet-le-Duc's spire aligns with a bill passed by the French Senate last year that stated that the cathedral's rebuilding must be faithful to its "last known visual state". However, it seems to be a change of direction for the French president who had previously called for "an inventive reconstruction" and said that he planned to "rebuild the Notre Dame so it is even more beautiful than it was".

Following these statement's French prime minister Edouard Philippe announced that there would be an international competition to design the cathedral's next spire. At the time he said: "As is often the case in the evolution of heritage, we should endow Notre-Dame with a new spire.&qu...