July 21 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) is teaming up

with the French government to create a digital replica of Paris'

Notre-Dame Cathedral, France's most visited monument, the U.S.

tech company's president, Brad Smith, said on Monday.

The 862-year-old Gothic masterpiece was reopened last

December after a five-year restoration following a devastating

fire in 2019.

A digital replica will serve as a record of the building's

architectural details, Microsoft ( MSFT ) said. It will also provide a

virtual experience for visitors and those unable to visit.

The cathedral became a symbol of Paris and France after

Victor Hugo used it as a setting for his 1831 novel "The

Hunchback of Notre-Dame". Quasimodo, the main character, has

been portrayed in Hollywood movies, an animated Disney

adaptation and in musicals.

Last year, Microsoft ( MSFT ) worked with Iconem, a French company

that specialises in digitalisation of heritage sites, on a

digital replica of St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

"One of the things we learned from the work at St Peter's is

how a digital twin can help support the ongoing maintenance of a

building. Because you capture a digital record of every

centimetre and what is there and what it's supposed to look

like," Smith told Reuters.

"The ability to create a digital twin right now I think will

provide an enormously valuable digital record that I believe

people are going to be using 100 years from now," he said.

Since 2019, Microsoft ( MSFT ) has digitally preserved heritage sites

and events including Ancient Olympia in Greece, Mont

Saint-Michel in France and the 80th Anniversary of the Allied

Beach Landings in Normandy.