Notre Dame catches fire

[Sim Kid]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/worl ... -fire.html

Wow, holy damn.

[Deku Tree]

The post-fire images of the interior are not as bad as I'd feared.

[ScottyMcGee]

Very surreal to see such a sight. Thankfully from what I've read so far nobody was hurt. They managed to save every piece of artwork and relic. The worst has been averted. 2/3 of the roof burned and the spire, as I'm sure everyone has seen by now, collapsed.

[CaptHayfever]

Because of already-in-progress renovations, the roof statues had been temporarily removed, which certainly helped matters (they weren't present to fall through the weakened roof & hurt firefighters or break stuff). Only one stained-glass window was damaged. Notre Dame's position on an island in the Seine had to have helped matters, too; the fire would not have been able to spread quickly beyond the cathedral, & plenty of excess water was readily available to firefighters. The primary structure of the building is intact, and so are the bell towers.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Temple Mount caught fire around the same time; that was a much smaller blaze & more quickly extinguished, with no interior damage and, like Notre Dame, no injuries.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Marilink]

This broke my heart to watch.

[Valigarmander]

Thankfully the damage was limited. It could've been much worse.

A medievalist has shared some thoughts on Facebook that I think are comforting.

While what has happened to Notre Dame today has shocked me and moved me to tears more than once over the course of the evening, I'm finding that my background and training as a medievalist means I'm, overall, finding it a lot less devastating than many people.

Why?

Because I know how churches live. They are not static monuments to the past. They are built, they get burned, they are rebuilt, they are extended, they get ransacked, they get rebuilt, they collapse because they were not built well, they get rebuilt, they get extended, they get renovated, they get bombed, they get rebuilt. It is the continuous presence, not the original structure, that matters.

The spire that fell, that beautiful iconic spire? Not even 200 years old. A new spire can be built, the next stage in the evolution of the cathedral.

The rose windows? Reproductions of the originals. We can reproduce them again.

Notre Dame is one of the best documented cathedrals in the world. We have the knowledge we need to rebuild it.

But more than that: We have the skill. There may not be as many ecclesiastical stone masons nowadays as there were in the height of the Middle Ages, but there are still plenty, and I bet masons from all over Europe, if not further, will be standing ready to contribute to rebuilding. Same with glaziers, carpenters, etc.

Precious artworks and relics may have been lost. There is report of one fireman seriously injured, but so far, from what I've read, no one else, and no deaths.

This isn't the first time Notre Dame has burned. I'm dead certain it won't be the last.

[I am nobody]

Yeah, that was my thought when I heard it. I'd just assumed it had probably burned down several times already. Not many buildings last more than a few hundred years unless they're solid stone, and even then it's only with obvious damage unless they've somehow been upkept the entire time and never subject to war or natural disaster.

[ScottyMcGee]

I have a conspiracy theory in mind but it's just a theory. . .


A GAME THEORY.